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.

32. The Three Sides of the Triangle Part 2

A/N Hey everyone! First off I am sooooo sorry for making you wait this long for an update. I really don't have any other excuse except that I seemed to have lost my mojo there for a while. I don't know exactly what happened. It was just like my imagination slammed into a proverbial brick wall on all of my stories. I knew where I wanted them to go next, but when I would sit down to write it was like nothing would come out. To put it bluntly, I suffered from the worst case of writer's block that I have ever had in my life. I guess it happens to everyone from time to time. But I seemed to have moved past it for now and I'm back to work. If anyone is still interested in reading this story I hope you can enjoy this nice long chapter. So let me get my hugs out to my absolutely amazing reviewers and we'll move on. BIG HUGS TO:

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Thank you so much, as always, you guys! You are my inspiration. Now, on with the show!

ENJOY!

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The Galactic Trinity

Chapter 30

The Three Sides of the Triangle Part 2

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The Original Galactic Trinity (cont.)

'Ren! Behind you!' Jonathan's voice rang in Serenity's head. She spun around and yelped when she saw a youma that had managed to sneak up behind her. It swung the whip it held in its hands at her a second before she shot a blast of silver energy at it. She screamed in pain as the whip cut deeply into the calf of her right leg. A moment later the youma howled as her attack hit it and it crumbled to dust.

Serenity buried the tip of her sword in the dirt and leaned heavily against it to keep from folding to the ground. Tears of pain and frustration left muddy tracks down her dirt-smeared face.

'Are you okay?' both Jonathan and Edward's voices echoed anxiously through her mind.

She gritted her teeth together. 'I'm fine! Don't worry about me! How many more of these things do we have to go through anyway?"

She heard Edward sigh. 'More than I care to count. It seems like every time I get rid of one, two more appear in its place.'

'Are you sure you're okay?' Jonathan's worried voice demanded.

Serenity gritted her teeth. 'I said I was fine. It's just a scratch. But I'm starting to get worried. I feel so tired. We've never pushed our energy this far before.'

"Just hold on a little bit longer,' Jonathan attempted to soothe her. 'If we can just get rid of the last of these stragglers we'll have a clear shot at the bastard.'

Edward snorted. 'Easier said than done. He's making sure to keep a nice little distance between us and him.'

Serenity's glowing silver eyes focused on the swirling dark cloud that made sure to stay inside the protective circle of youma that he had called forth. 'That coward! He keeps hiding behind those youma instead of facing us."

'Yeah, some all powerful, evil entity, huh?' Jonathan grumbled. 'I wish he did have a physical body though. Blasting the asshole seems too good for him. I would rather rip him apart with my bare hands!'

'Calm down just a little bit, hothead,' Edward cautioned. 'Getting yourself worked up won't solve anything.'

Serenity shook her head as she heard growls from both of the men echo in her mind. There was still a certain amount of tension between the three of them, despite the fact that they knew that the horrible visions that they had seen earlier had been part of Discord's manipulation of their thoughts. The calm, rational part of her brain told her that there was no way that Jonathan had been sleeping with another woman, that he loved her and only her. But she couldn't completely banish the small amount of doubt that was lingering in the back of her mind.

'Guys…please,' she begged as she jerked her sword from the ground and used it to channel her energy as she destroyed a nearby youma. 'Can we please concentrate on the job at hand at the moment? You can bicker later if you really want to.'

'Right,' they both replied grudgingly, and they all set back to work, hacking, slashing, and blasting their way through Discord's forces.

'Almost there,' Serenity thought to herself when she saw that finally, only a handful of youma were left between them and their ultimate target.

A reptilian looking youma lunged at her, and she called forth the energy she needed to destroy it. But her sword's blade glowed silver for only a moment before it sputtered and disappeared. A sharp cry left her as the tiny, flashing moon on her bracelet flickered out and she felt Selene's power seep out of her. She fell to her knees as a wave of exhaustion overtook her.

A flare of red-orange energy took out the youma that was only a few yards away from attacking her, and then Jonathan was at her side. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Selene's power suddenly disappeared. I can't feel it anymore."

He looked concerned. "Maybe you just need to rest and recharge for a minute. We've used a lot of energy."

A yell had both of their heads snapping around, and they stared in horror at Edward, whose eyes were back to their normal deep blue…and he had what appeared to be a spear of some type stabbed into his stomach. As the youma holding the other end of the spear yanked it out, he toppled toward the ground.

"Son of a bitch!" Jonathan snarled, and then dashed forward, unleashing a furious barrage of solar flames on the youma until it was nothing more than a pile of ashes.

"Edward!" Serenity screamed as she stumbled to her feet and half ran, half limped to her friend's side. She fell to her knees beside him and pulled his head into her lap. The sight of his closed eyes chilled her to the bone "Ed! Oh Ed! Don't be dead! You can't be dead! Althea will murder me in my sleep if you die!"

Edward let out a pained moan as his eyes barely opened. "I'm not dead yet, but it might be worth it to see my wife try to take you on. Your crystal may be more powerful than hers, but she's scary when she's angry."

A strangled sound of disbelief tore from Serenity's throat. "Are you seriously trying to crack a joke now, at a time like this? Are you insane?"

"My vote is for certifiably bonkers," Jonathan quipped as he spun around to glance at them after taking out yet another youma. "What the hell happened, Ed?"

"I honestly don't know," Edward ground out between his teeth. "I was about to take down that youma when Gaia's power just vanished. It took me by surprise and the youma was able to get the drop on me."

"Can't you heal it?" Serenity asked, eying the bleeding wound critically.

"I can try," he mumbled, seeming only half conscious. A faint golden glow surrounded him for a few seconds, but died out quickly. The flow of blood slowed a little bit, but did not stop. Nor did the wound appear to heal at all.

He grimaced. "Looks like I'm running a little low in the energy department."

Discord's booming laugh rang out. "I warned you three in the beginning, didn't I? I told you that there was no way that your energy would last long enough to take me on, but you didn't listen."

"Bullshit!" Jonathan growled softly. His still blazing red-orange eyes flaring brighter for a moment. "Ren, stay with Ed."

Serenity reached for his hand as he turned away. "What are you going to do?"

A ghost of his cocky grin touched his lips. "There're only two youma left. I'm going to take them out and then see what I can do about getting rid of that bastard."

"You can't do that alone. It's suicide!" Edward exclaimed as he attempted to push himself into a sitting position.

Jonathan pushed him back down gently. "You two just sit tight. I'll be right back." He bent down and pressed a quick kiss to Serenity's lips. Then he whirled and charged toward the remaining two youma.

"Temperamental idiot!" Edward grumbled, and then broke off with a moan of pain.

Serenity quickly tore off a large piece from the hem of her blouse, folded it into a pad, and pressed it against Edward's wound. Part of her mind processed that the white material quickly turned red, but the other part of her brain was focused on her prince.

Both of the youma attacked Jonathan at once. He managed to destroy one in just a matter of seconds, but as he spun to face the second one, Serenity saw the change happen. The golden sun on his brow disappeared and his eyes faded to soft blue.

"Oh no!" she gasped in horror as she watched the youma barrel into Jonathan and they both hit the ground. His sword flew from his hand. After a minute of scuffling and flying fists, the solar prince managed to kick his attacker off of him and roll tiredly to his feet.

"Enough is enough!" Discord boomed. "This has been mildly entertaining at best, but it has dragged on long enough. It's time to end this so that I can get on with my business." He shot a blast of dark energy toward both Jonathan and the youma.

The youma shrieked as the attack disintegrated it, but Jonathan tried to dodge the blast. He succeeded in avoiding being hit, but the backlash of the explosion sent him flying through the air and right over the side of the canyon.

"Jonathan!" Serenity screamed as she watched him disappear from sight. A sob of relief caught in her throat a second later when she saw a tanned hand clinging to the rim of the canyon wall. "Oh! He's okay!"

"Figures," Edward tried to smirk. "Go help him, Serenity. I'll be fine."

Serenity shook her head and kept applying pressure to the profusely bleeding wound in his stomach. "I can't leave you like this, Edward. Althea would never forgive me if I don't get you home in one piece. You're going to be a father soon, and I promised her I wouldn't let you get yourself killed."

He pushed her away with a growl. "Damn it, Serenity! None of us are getting out of here alive if one of us dies. It's going to take all three of us to get rid of him. Now go!"

She stared at him for a moment with panicked eyes before she staggered to her feet and ran for the edge of the cliff as fast as her feet could take her, ignoring the searing pain in her right leg where the youma's whip had cut into her. She threw herself onto her knees and pushed her silver hair out of her face as she peered over the side.

Her violet eyes widened and her heart pounded in her chest as she spotted her golden haired prince barely clinging to the edge with one hand. "Jonathan!"

He looked up at her in shock. One eye was puffy and already beginning to bruise and he had a bloody gash on his forehead, but his light blue eyes remained clear. "Ren, what are you doing? Don't worry about me. Get back to Edward."

Serenity ignored him and lay down on her stomach, reaching her arms over the ledge. "Grab my hands."

Jonathan growled. "You stubborn woman, don't you ever listen to anything I tell you? You can't possibly pull me up."

Tears poured from her eyes as she begged. "Please Jon. I'm a lot stronger than I look, you should know that by now. Let me help you. Don't ask me to go through the rest of my life without you. I love you too much for that."

The shattered look on her face broke him, and he reached up with his free hand to grab her slender one. He pushed his feet against the side of the cliff and then released his hold on the ledge to grab her other one.

"Don't worry. I won't let you go," she whispered. "I'll never let you go."

After a few minutes of groaning and straining, she was finally able to help him pull himself up over the edge and back to solid ground. After catching their breath for a moment, they ran to their fallen friend.

"Edward!" Jonathan cried. "You still with me, buddy?"

Eyelashes fluttered over the dark blue eyes, but the earth prince was able to gasp out. "Yeah, I'm still here. I can't imagine heaven being this painful."

Serenity choked on a sob. "Don't even joke like that! It's not funny at all!"

Edward chuckled, then grimaced as he clutched his injured abdomen. "Sorry. So what do we do now? We're all too low on power now to use the Trinity to defeat him."

Jonathan cursed softly. "It's my fault. We could have taken him while his defenses were down, but I got cocky and felt like playing with him for a while. It gave him a chance to regroup and become stronger."

Edward reached up and clasped his friend's shoulder. "I'm at fault as much as you are. You didn't hear me stepping up and saying that we should hurry up and take the bastard down, did you?"

"Oh hush, both of you," Serenity muttered angrily. "We've all let the power of the gods go to our heads. It made us careless, and now we're paying the price."

An eerie laugh rumbled around them as Discord's misty form appeared before them. "Yes, you had your chance, but now it's mine. You pathetic little royals thought you could stand against me, but now you know that I am the supreme being. The galaxy put all of their hopes on you, and you failed. Now your kingdoms will be mine to claim."

Anger bubbled inside Serenity. Because of Discord, her friends, her family, everyone she loved was in danger. She couldn't let him get away with this. She had to do something. "Never, ever!" she exclaimed, climbing tiredly to her feet. "Not as long as I have breath left in my body, you monster!"

The disembodied voice cackled in glee. "I'm about to rectify that problem. You three have been enough of a nuisance to me, so I believe it's time to eliminate you."

There was a flash of white light. When it faded, a small, round, silver colored crystal hovered in front of the moon princess.

Jonathan scrambled to her side. "What are you doing, Ren?"

Her sad, violet eyes gazed at him. "I can't let him attack this galaxy. Think of all the innocent people on all of the planets. I can't let them be sacrificed to this demon. I'm going to try to seal him away with the crystal."

The golden haired prince smoothed a hand down her porcelain cheek. Then, in a flash of red orange light, he called forth his own crystal. "You can't do this alone. It will kill you if you try to do it yourself. I'm going to be right here by your side, helping you every step of the way."

"Don't count me out," a voice grunted as Edward laboriously pulled himself up and leaned heavily against a boulder. He glowed a deep gold as his crystal emerged. "I'm in this too. And don't either of you give me any crap about me not being strong enough. We made a pact, remember? Together until the end." He held a hand out in front of him, palm down.

A smile trembled on Serenity's lips as she laid her hand on top of his. "Right. Until the end."

Jonathan added his hand to the pile. "Until the end."

They shared a conspiratorial grin before turning to face the mist once more. It swirled angrily before them.

"Are you done saying your goodbyes?" the voice boomed.

"Not a chance, Discord!" Serenity cried. "We may not be able to defeat you, but we can seal you away. We will never allow you to conquer our kingdoms and those of our friends. You're going down."

"Then give it your best shot!" Discord growled as he shot a wide beam of dark energy at them.

In a flash of silver, red-orange, and gold, the three young royals sent their own energy against the evil entity, valiantly trying to turn back his attack. The battle see sawed back and forth for several moments, neither side able to gain the upper hand.

In a last, desperate effort, they pooled together as much energy as they could without draining every bit of their life forces. The large blast of energy hit Discord, and with a bellow of rage, he disappeared in flash of light.

The last of the light faded, and three limp bodies fell unconscious to the ground, drained almost to the point of death. They were all pale, and their chests barely moved with their shallow breathing, but they were alive and the evil was gone…for now.

End of Story

---

A bright light flashed through the parlor of the Elysian palace, and everyone blinked as they found themselves abruptly pulled from the visions of the past and back in the present time.

"So now you know," Queen Serenity said quietly as she stared down at the hands that she had folded in her lap.

"Oh…um…wow!" Serena mumbled after a moment of silence.

Serenity sighed. "I warned you that it wasn't going to be pleasant."

"That bastard!" Jess spat, her hands shaking where she had them braced on her knees. "Now I wish I'd done more than stab him a couple of times!" She jumped up and began pacing, muttering curses under her breath in her unique mixture of Japanese and English that she always seemed to revert to when she got angry.

"Um…for the record, I'm glad you didn't," Rini quipped snidely. "Some of us around here would like to be born someday. And that would be kinda hard to do if you threw a temper tantrum and caused the planet to go ka-boom."

She squeaked and ducked to avoid the throw pillow that Jess threw at her, causing the pillow to bounce off Emma's head. The blonde looked around with a murderous glare. "Hey!"

Darien let out a piercing whistle. "Down children! Getting all worked up right now isn't going to accomplish anything."

Andrew nodded in agreement and grabbed Jess's hand as she paced by him and forced her to sit back down beside him. "Darien's right. If you keep it up you're going to end up making something explode. And if you do I'm going to let Dawn and Helios have at you."

She stuck her tongue out at him and then turned to face her past grandparents. "I do feel for you guys though. I know what it feels like to have that psycho running through your head and treating it like a playground. He did it to me a couple of years ago and recently tried to do it again until I fought him off. But what he did to me was baby stuff compared to what he did to you."

A bitter laugh echoed around the room, making everyone look toward Katie. She still sat on her knees between DJ and Alex, but now her shoulders were slumped and shaking and her hair fell over her face as she stared down at the floor.

"He really is a master of manipulation…isn't he?" she choked out in a voice that was somewhere between a sob and a sneer. "Freaking asshole!"

Alex and DJ both slapped themselves on the forehead and exclaimed simultaneously, "Oh shit, Kat! I'm sorry! I didn't think about how seeing that would affect you."

Rini rolled her eyes and muttered, "Morons! Of course you didn't!"

Emma picked up the pillow that had hit her in the head only a minute before and began whapping both boys with it. "You insensitive…males! You could try showing a little compassion instead of just blurting out the obvious like that. How rude!"

Both boys howled and covered their heads with their arms to try and protect themselves from the suddenly crazed blonde's attack. Since they were so occupied, it took them a minute to realize that Katie was giggling.

She looked up at them then. Her eyes were glassy and a few tears rolled down her cheeks, but there was a smile on her lips. "Let it go, Em. They can't help it that they were born with the genetic birth defect of being boys. Besides, I'm okay. Yeah, seeing what he did made me relive a few bad flashbacks, but I can handle it. I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to let what Discord did to me rule my life anymore, and I'm sticking to it."

An angry growl rumbled in Jonathan's chest as he got up from his seat on the couch to kneel down in front of Katie and place his hands gently on her shoulders. "What did he do to you, little one?"

She shook her head. "It doesn't matter anymore. It's in the past. I don't even remember most of it. I've tried to block it out of my mind."

"Of course it matters," Serenity spoke up gently. "Everything matters. If you harbor any shred of doubt inside of you, Discord will take advantage of it. But I have the feeling that you know that already."

Katie jerked away from Jonathan. "I do know that, and I get it! He got the drop on me once, but it won't happen again. This time I'll be ready for him."

Edward snorted as he sat back and crossed his arms. "Beware of that overconfidence. That was exactly what landed us in so much trouble."

"Hmph!" Althea huffed next to him. "Trouble is putting it mildly. The three of you very nearly got yourselves killed with that little stunt, sneaking off by yourselves like that. I nearly had a heart attack when I woke up that morning and found out that you were gone. And there I was pregnant with Endymion on top of everything! It's a miracle he was born healthy! I nearly worried myself to death wondering where you were and what was going on. And then when the others finally tracked you down and brought you back here you three were more dead than alive. I nearly died right there on the spot!"

All three of the original Trinity bearers visibly winced at the familiar rant they had heard many, many times. "Sorry," they mumbled together.

Everybody in the room laughed at the sight of the three monarchs acting like chastised children…except DJ, Katie, and Alex.

"Hold up just a second!" Alex exclaimed. "Do the three of you still have the weird voodoo mind link even after all this time?"

Jonathan chuckled deeply. "No. That was just a coincidence that we spoke together that time. I guess it just becomes a habit after spending centuries with the same people. The power of the three way bond was taken from us when Apollo, Selene, and Gaia stripped us of the right to use their powers."

Serenity shuddered. "That was definitely not a happy meeting. The three of them popped in here that night after we had woken up and were talking. They were so angry and disappointed that I was afraid for a moment that they were going to kill us themselves. But instead they demanded that we hand over the bracelets and the swords and told us that they hoped that one day the ones that were truly worthy to wield their powers would be born. And now they have chosen you three."

Ever the analytical one, DJ couldn't help but wonder, "But why us?"

Edward waved a hand. "It all has to do with genetics and such, at least in a roundabout way. While none of us are technically blood related, your parents are reincarnations of those we did share a genetic link with. Even Motoki was Jonathan's fifth cousin twice removed, or something like that."

Jonathan shrugged. "Beats me. My family tree was too extensive and complicated to try and figure out. But what everything really boils down to is that the dear gods didn't take one small detail into account when they picked you three. And it's something that makes you vastly different than us."

Serena was on the edge of her seat. "Is that different in a good way, or different in a bad way?"

Serenity smiled secretively. "It's not that it's good or bad, but I have to admit that the thought never crossed my mind until Selene brought it up in a recent conversation with her. Can any of you three think of the one thing that would set you apart from us?"

"Because we're just that good?" Alex quipped with a smirk and then yelped and ducked as Emma swung the pillow at his head once again.

Katie scrunched her nose up as she thought about it for several long moments. Then she shrugged. "I admit it. I'm clueless. What about you?" she asked, turning to DJ. She squeaked and scrambled backward, almost into Alex's lap.

"Oh no, Lex!" she exclaimed in mock horror. "Mr. Genius has got his game face on!"

"Very funny!" DJ mumbled absently, but his face never lost its expression of intense concentration. It was the same look he wore whenever a teacher was covering a new subject or he was studying for a test. It meant that he was thinking hard, and his intensity was almost terrifying.

Serena leaned over to whisper in Darien's ear. "He reminds me so much of you when he does that."

Darien gave her a lopsided grin. "Yeah. Now let's see how long it takes him to figure it out."

She arched a brow at him. "You already know, don't you?"

He looked smug. "Let's just say that I have a hypothesis. I could be way off base, but I don't think I am."

"Smartass!" she grumbled. Then she blushed as she caught Queen Serenity's censuring look for her choice of language and giggled. "Oops!"

"Do you have any idea what they are talking about?" Andrew asked Jess softly. "Maybe I should have gotten a degree in solving riddles instead of business."

Jess shook her head slowly. "I'm not entirely sure. At first I thought it might be…but then I thought…but it couldn't be…"

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Thanks a lot! That made so much sense."

She glared at him for a second before her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Oh!" she exclaimed, and then slapped both of her hands over her mouth.

Rini bounced up on her knees. "What? What am I missing?" She elbowed her brother in the ribs. "Hurry up and figure it out before the top of your head explodes, Brainiac! I want to know what's going on!"

DJ ignored the jab to his side and kept analyzing the facts in his head. He knew how he, Katie, and Alex were like the original Trinity bearers. His power came from the Earth the way Edward's did while Katie had inherited lunar energy from the moon the same as Serenity. And, of course, Alex and Jonathan's powers were completely solar based.

There was then the royalty factor. Edward, Serenity, and Jonathan had all been royals while, technically speaking, being the prince of Crystal Tokyo made him the only royal of the group. But he didn't believe that was the issue. He didn't see where being a member of a royal family would make a difference in all of this. Besides, in his eyes both Katie and Alex were just as much royalty as he was. If Jess had chosen to reclaim her lost title when Crystal Tokyo had been founded instead of opting for a position in his parent's court, then Katie and Alex would have born as a princess and prince. So no, that couldn't be the difference Queen Serenity was speaking of.

He looked up at his girlfriend and best friend and then turned his gaze toward the people, who in a wacky way, were kind of his grandparents. Gaia, Selene, and Apollo had chosen a Terran, a Lunarian, and a Solarian to be their champions, people who controlled the power of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. They had done the same thing this time as well. So he couldn't quite see the difference between…

"Wait a minute!" he exclaimed suddenly as the answer finally dawned on him. There was a difference, a huge difference. "It's our bloodlines, isn't it? That's what's different. You three are pureblooded Terran, Lunarian, and Solarian while Katie, Alex, and I are a mix of all three. That's what it is!"

Edward snickered. "I told you he'd figure it out, Ren, if you would just give him a minute. Even after a thousand years you still act like your brain is so superior to everyone else's."

Serenity beckoned to Emma with an innocent smile. "Emmaline, darling, could I borrow that pillow you're holding for just a moment?"

Jonathan jumped up quickly. "Whoa! If you two are going to get into another one of your arguments, then at least let me get out of the line of fire first. It seems like every time I get stuck between the two of you that I'm the one that ends up suffering for it."

Serena giggled as she watched her former mother bare her teeth at the former Earth king. She slipped easily to Jonathan's side and wrapped both of her arms around one of his and hugged it close. "I don't think I've ever seen mother act quite like this. I remember that she could have her playful moments from time to time, but this is a completely different side of her."

"Hmph!" Jess snorted as she joined them with Andrew at her side. "You should have been around on the nights that she tucked me in to bed. Nobody told a story quite the way grandma did. You remember, don't you, sweetie? You used to sneak into my room on those nights so you could listen."

Andrew chuckled. "Yeah, I remember. I was in awe of the fact that a queen would run around a room, acting out her stories while doing different voices for the characters. It was a total riot."

Jonathan looked fondly toward his queen, who was now being talked to calmly by Althea. "This is the way she was when I first met her, before she had to settle down and become a queen. She never lost her bubbly, cheerful personality, but once the responsibility of running a kingdom was placed upon her she had to be careful about what she said and did. This side of her only came out when we were out of the public eye. It was a sad day for me when I was forced to leave her side for the Elysian Fields. Most people would be ecstatic to find themselves in a land of paradise, but all I wanted was to come back to her." He glanced down at Serena. "And you too, my little bunny. I definitely didn't want to leave you either, especially when you were so young. You had only just turned fifteen."

"Oh, Papa!" Serena cried as she buried her face in his shoulder. To be honest, she had blocked out most of the painful events of that day from her memory. She could only vaguely recall returning to the moon from a visit to Earth that had been cut short by threats from Beryl's rebels. She and her family had just arrived on the teleportation platform when a group of those traitors, who had snuck onto the moon earlier, had ambushed them. Jonathan had shoved her mother and her toward a group of guards and had ordered them to run for the castle. Then he had turned to face the attack. That had been the last time that she had seen him alive.

Jonathan wrapped her in one of his enormous bear hugs. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I didn't mean to make you sad. I was just reminiscing. Death really wasn't so bad. I was just bored out of my mind for about seven years. It was almost a relief when Edward and Althea showed up. Of course when I heard what was happening it made me mad. I even saw you for a moment."

Serena sniffled and looked up. "You did?"

He nodded. "Mm hmm. Edward, Althea, and I were sitting around, and they were filling me in on events when I saw a flash. For just one brief instance we saw you, Endymion, and Melody there. And then you just disappeared. Your mother arrived a short time later and told us that she had sent you to be reincarnated."

Serena sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Yeah, she gave up the last of her energy to give us a second chance. I can only hope that one day I can be as selfless as she was."

Jonathan chuckled softly. "Oh, I don't think the apple falls far from the tree. Thanks to Ren's link to moon magic we've been able to keep an eye on some of the events that have happened since your reincarnation, and I've seen many occasions where you have put the feelings and safety of your friends and family before your own. You've grown into an amazing woman, Serenity. And I don't think that any father could be prouder."

"Thank you, Papa," Serena replied softly.

"Um, excuse me," DJ grumbled grumpily. "Could we all get back to the subject at hand before everyone loses focus?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah, I'm still waiting to find out exactly what this all powerful revelation means. I mean, it's not like we're all that special just because we have a mixed heredity. My mom and Rini share all three bloodlines as well."

"That's right," Alex agreed. "I know that technically we are all full blooded Terrans, but if you want to take ancient bloodlines into account then that means that all of our friends have at least two or more types of blood in them."

Emma tilted her head in thought. "That's true. I would be considered Terran, Venusian, and Lunarian because my father is from Earth while my mother's past self was half Venusian on her mother's side and half Lunarian since her father was Queen Serenity's brother."

Queen Serenity nodded. "That's true. And that is what makes all of you so vastly different from those of us that banded together in the past. In our day marriages between the royal families of different planets were not unheard of, but they weren't everyday occurrences either. Most of the planets chose to wed their heirs to a high ranking noble within their own courts to keep the bloodlines pure. But obviously there were a few exceptions, especially if a marriage could form a strong union. That was why my mother originally wanted me to marry Edward and why she supported my brother when he fell in love with the crown princess of Venus, to strengthen our ties. Luckily for me, she was also an understanding woman and believed in love as well. She ruled alone for many centuries, despite the cry of her people to find a king, because she refused to marry someone that she didn't love. Everyone rejoiced when she finally met and married my father. Unfortunately though, fate decided to part them after only a short time. I was so young when my father was killed in a skirmish that I barely remember him. But my mother always said that she was grateful for every moment that she had with him. So when I went to her and declared my love for Jonathan she agreed to let me marry the man of my choice."

Jonathan chuckled. "I think she also found it amusing to thumb her nose at my family. You know, she and my uncle, the king, had that long-standing feud going on. I'm sure she enjoyed every moment of rubbing his face in the fact that a member of his family was going to marry her daughter. Then I went and made things even worse when I allowed Travis and Clarissa to come to the moon with me. My parents threatened to disown me over that stunt."

Jess held her hands up. "Okay! Quick question! Curiosity has definitely gotten the better of me. Just what exactly was this huge rivalry between the sun and the moon that all of you keep talking about?"

Serena giggled. "Oh! I guess I never told you the story of that little family drama. You see, the politics of the solar kingdom worked somewhat differently than most of the others and their royal family was quite large. The eldest child of the current ruler did not always automatically inherit the throne. There were several options to be considered, and one of the most important ones was that whoever took the throne must be married. So when Papa's uncle was up to inherit, he proposed to my grandmother, Selenity, and she turned him down. In a fit of retaliation, he became engaged to a woman in his court, who also happened to be my grandmother's closest friend, and then forbade his soon to be wife from having any contact with my grandmother. But his plan backfired when his precocious fiancée went behind his back and invited grandma to the wedding. It was at their reception where grandma met grandpa. He was Lunarian, and a good friend to the newly crowned solar king, but he had spent many years away from the moon and traveling the galaxy. They hit it off right away and were married not long after that. Needless to say, the king wasn't happy."

"There was more to it than that," Serenity replied softly. "Tensions ran high between the two kings for a few years, but they remained civil with each other. Then the solar king asked my father for some assistance with a bandit problem he was having and that was when my father was killed. There were a lot of horrible rumors about what happened that day, but no one knows for sure exactly what happened. All I know is that mother held a strong grudge against the sun after that. I was just glad that her animosity didn't spill over to Jonathan. She believed in marrying for love."

"And that was why you gave in to me when I made my choice," Serena said quietly.

Serenity arched a brow at both her and Darien. "Well you two didn't exactly leave Edward, Althea, and I with many options in the matter. The two of you were talking about running away if we didn't let you wed, so it was either allow it or risk losing you both. But we did think that we would have a little bit more time to work things out. None of us expected you to get pregnant almost right away."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Hello, people! This has been an interesting history lesson and all, but can we try to get back on the subject, please? So we've established the fact that our blood is a nice, mixed up soup of different heredities. What exactly does that mean?"

"We don't know that it means anything. We just have a hunch," Edward replied.

Althea bumped his shoulder with hers. "Don't be so negative. Earlier, before we came here, you said that it could make all the difference in the world."

"What could make all the difference in the world?" DJ, Katie, and Alex all demanded together in exasperated stereo surround sound.

Jonathan and Edward broke into chuckles.

"Flashbacks to the good old days, huh?" Jonathan joked.

Serenity sighed and sat herself between them. "Okay you two, that's enough. Save the joking for later." She turned her gaze on DJ. "Have you ever attempted to touch your mother's Silver Crystal?"

His blue eyes widened. "No. I never tried to touch anyone's crystal besides my own. I usually leave that to Rini. She's the one that stole the Silver Crystal when we were little and ran off."

Rini stuck her tongue out at him. "I can't believe you brought that up! Besides, if I'm not mistaken I am the one that used mom's crystal to help save Crystal Tokyo. If it hadn't been for me then all of you would have been trapped in that evil sleep spell forever."

He rolled his eyes. "No. The point is that we probably wouldn't have been in that situation if you hadn't been messing around with the crystal in the first place."

Feeling that a possible sibling squabble was about to break out, Darien cleared his throat deeply, bringing both of his future children's attention to him. He shook his head slightly and gave them a stern look to tell them that now was not the time. They quieted quickly under his look.

The former moon queen bit back a smile. "As you all know, your crystals were born from the crystals of your parents. Naturally, Rini would be able to control Serenity's Silver Crystal because it is the parent of her own crystal. In Melody's case she would probably be able to control both the Silver and the Golden Crystals because of the unique origin of her own crystal. They would never be able to use them to their full potential because the crystals do not belong to them, but they would still be powerful. The same is true for you two boys. You would be able to exert some control over your fathers' crystals as well since they created yours."

"That makes sense," DJ mused. "I would never try to find out from first hand experience though. My dad would skin me if I ever laid a finger on the Golden Crystal."

Alex nodded. "Same here. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever even seen my dad's crystal."

Andrew snickered and patted his chest. "That's because I keep it safe and sound right here where it belongs. Besides, you've got one of your own. You don't need mine."

Katie propped her elbows on her knees and put her chin in her hands as she grumbled, "I'm always the odd one out, aren't I? I only got the moon part of mom's crystal, so hers would probably knock me flat on my ass if I ever tried to touch it since half of its power is earth based."

"Hmm…maybe, and maybe not," Serenity replied mysteriously. "Crystals are more than just a concentration of planetary energy. It has even been debated for centuries over whether or not they may even be sentient. I believe they have the ability to see deep inside a person, past whatever powers they have and right down to our genetic code."

Alex tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Okay, now you lost me."

Serenity smiled benevolently. "What I am saying is that the very first crystals that were created and given to the mortals were formed from the powers of the gods, the same power that flows through the bracelets you now wear."

DJ studied the strap on his wrist. "So what you're saying is that these are kind of like super crystals."

"I suppose that's one way of looking at it," Serenity conceded. "But the root of my point goes much deeper than that. You three have been training with these powers for a while and you've already face Discord with them once with some success. But tell me this, when you were standing before him, were you confident or scared?"

"Are you kidding! My knees were knocking together the entire time," Katie exclaimed.

"Same here!" both guys agreed.

Serenity looked toward Jonathan, who nodded slightly. "It looks like our theory was right after all."

"What theory?" Serena demanded. "This beating around the bush is driving me crazy! Please, tell us what your idea is. And no more hocus pocus mumbo jumbo!"

"Calm yourself, Serenity," Queen Serenity chided gently. "It's very simple actually. When your father, Edward, and I were given those powers they reacted strongly to the powers that we already carried and went straight to our heads, making us cocky. We suddenly believed that we were invincible and that nothing could stop us."

Edward nodded sagely. "We thought that since we controlled the powers of the gods that we were just as infallible as they were. We never took into account that we were merely mortals and that our bodies had limitations despite the powers that we wielded. We were so blinded by the lust of power that it never occurred to us that we could fail. Sometimes I wonder how the others ever put up with us."

Althea sniffed. "It wasn't easy. There were times that you three would get so full of yourselves that I had to turn and walk away before I strangled you. And every time I voiced any concerns about the need to exercise a little bit of caution you would just brush me off. It was quite infuriating at times."

Rini shook her head. "But DJ, Katie, and Alex haven't been acting like that. If wasn't for the fact that their eyes change color and those symbols appear on their foreheads when they call on their powers I would say that they haven't changed at all. Sure, they're faster, stronger, and can teleport, but other than that they've stayed the same."

Emma nodded eagerly. "It's true! If anything, I would say that they have even grown slightly more cautious."

Katie snorted. "Gee, thanks! I don't know whether to feel complimented or insulted."

"Just speaking the facts," Rini quipped back. "I know my brother well. And you and Alex have practically been like adopted siblings to me all our lives, so I know you guys pretty well too. And other than the little bitch fest you went on after Discord kidnapped you last fall you have stayed the same person."

Anger flashed in Jonathan's eyes. "Ah! So that's what you didn't want to tell me about before. That bastard dared to kidnap you!"

Edward snarled low in his throat. "I wonder how much groveling we would have to do to Zeus to get him to return us to our proper bodies with our powers intact for just one hour. That's all the time we'd need to teach Mr. All-Powerful Entity not to mess with our family!"

Althea sniffed disdainfully. "Down, grandpa bears! I don't think our great-granddaughter needs you two grumpy, grumbling grizzlies flying to her defense. She seems to be an independent, capable person and is probably more than capable of fighting her own battles. She must take after me."

Katie grinned as Althea shot her a sly wink. Then she sobered. "So why are we reacting to the god powers differently than you did? Does this mean that we're not as strong?"

"No! That's not it at all," Serenity reassured her. "I believe what it all boils down to is that since you three carry mixed blood it keeps the powers from trying to consume you. You are able to wield the powers effectively and to the fullest extent, but you are able to keep a level head and not let them overpower you. And keeping your common sense around you could make all the difference when the time comes for the final confrontation."

"But we can only achieve victory if we have those swords," DJ muttered in a low voice.

"Great!" Alex drawled sarcastically. "I don't suppose our illustrious predecessors would like to enlighten us about where we could find those swords."

Jonathan shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I haven't laid eyes on those swords since the night that Apollo, Gaia, and Selene showed up to take them away from us. They said that they were going to put them up in a safe place and that if those powers were ever needed again that the ones meant to wield those swords would find their way to them."

Jess rolled her eyes. "Vague, boring, and extremely uninformative, just like everything else in our lives. It would be nice if for once someone could come to us and say, 'Here's your enemy and this is what you have to do.' Playing Russian Roulette gets pretty irritating after a while."

"Things may not be as vague as you think," Serenity rebuked. "While it's true that we don't know where the swords are, Selene did say something about how the three of them accidentally almost stumbled across them when they were only children. But since they were so young the memory of that event was wiped from their minds."

DJ, Katie, and Alex all stared at one another in shock. Was there something that had happened in their past that they weren't aware of?

---

Tokyo – Present Time

'I love you.'

Skye jerked awake as those words echoed over and over in her head. She blinked several times as she tried to get her bearings. After a few moments her dim surroundings came into focus and she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that she was in the bedroom that she had been using since her arrival in the past.

What confused her though was the fact that she was passed out across the bed while the last dying rays of the sun streamed in the window through the parted curtains. She wasn't usually the type of person to give in to taking a nap in the middle of the day. Naps were for babies and sick people. What day was it anyway? Her brain felt like marshmallows.

She rolled over and stared at the ceiling, trying to sort out her thoughts. That's right, it was Monday. She had gone to school that day and then must have come home and zonked out. Now that she thought about it, she supposed it really wasn't that odd that she had given into fatigue. She had barely slept a wink since Friday night. Prom had been on Saturday and she'd had a lot of trouble sleeping since then.

'But it's not because of him!' she thought defiantly.

"Oh, who am I trying to kid?" she whispered to herself. "Of course it's because of him. It's all his fault. He just had to show up here and turn everything upside down. That stupid, conceited jackass!"

Okay, she was being harsh and she knew it. Kyrian had been roped into the plot for him to come to the past by Mina and Trista, so it wasn't entirely his fault. But he could have refused to play along with it if he had wanted to. Instead he had jumped right in.

A tiny grin tilted her lips. As mad as she had been when she had first seen him standing in the foyer of the penthouse, she couldn't say that the night had been as big of a disaster as she had thought it would be. In fact, it had turned out to be quite nice. They had finally hashed out some deep-rooted issues between them and she'd had the pleasure of dancing in his arms. Seeing Kyrian visit with the past form of his parents had been amusing as well.

And the kisses that they had shared…well, she refused to let herself dwell on the memory of those. All that did was make her feel like crying, and she detested feeling weak. Saying goodbye to him after only one night had almost been enough to crumble her iron hard self-control. It haunted her dreams every time she fell asleep. That was what had woken her up just now.

Dream Sequence

It was a couple of hours before dawn and they were in a clearing in the park. Trista stood a discreet distance away from them to give them the privacy that they needed to say their goodbyes.

"You better get going," Skye said, forcing her voice to be firm despite the burning of tears that she felt in her eyes.

Kyrian's arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her close. "I wish I didn't have to go. I would much rather stay here and help you so that we could go home together."

She barked out a shaky laugh. "Ha! The others and I can handle things here just fine on our own. Besides, you have your life to get back to. I doubt you'll even realize that I'm not there."

His pitch black eyes bore down into hers. "That's where you're wrong. Your absence has cut me like a knife every day since you left. I've only been going through the motions of living. My classes pass in a blur and eating and sleeping are the farthest things from my mind. The only reason why I go home is to assure my mom that I'm still alive."

"Suurre!" she drawled. "That's in between hitting the clubs and all of your hot dates. You are one of the biggest playboys around. I don't believe that for a moment."

"It's true!" he insisted. "You can ask anyone and they'll tell you. I've been laying low since you left. The only reason why I went out with those other girls in the first place was to try and get your attention."

She snorted. "Oh yeah! That's real ingenious thinking there. All that ever did was piss me off!"

He chuckled. "You were jealous."

"No I wasn't!" she retorted.

"You were," he replied confidently.

"In your dreams!" she snapped back.

His grin faded. "Yeah, in my dreams. But if that's the only place I can have you with me then I hope I fall asleep and never wake up."

Skye realized that she had hurt him and felt bad about it. "Kyrian…I…"

He shook his head. "It's okay. I knew it would be too much to ask to win you over in just a few hours. But I'm not giving up hope. I think we took some important steps tonight. And I'll be waiting for you when you get home to try and wear you down some more."

She couldn't help but laugh a little. "Your ego is showing again. Do you think that just because we spent a little time together tonight means that I am just going to run straight to you the moment I get back home?"

One corner of his mouth kicked up in a cocky smirk. "Nah! I'll give you a minute to greet your parents, and then I expect you to throw yourself at me and proclaim your undying love."

"Not gonna happen!" she growled.

"We'll see," he whispered softly as he bent down to brush his lips lightly over hers.

"Kyrian, it's time to go," Trista said gently as she approached them.

He nodded and pressed one last kiss against Skye's lips. "I love you," he told her sincerely before letting her go and stepping back to join Trista.

The same words burned on Skye's tongue, but she refused to say them. She desperately wanted to, but she was afraid of what it would mean if she did. Part of her now believed that Kyrian had never meant to hurt her, but she still had reservations about opening her heart completely to him. She needed more time to work out her feelings. So she just stood there until he disappeared in a flash of light.

End Dream

Skye groaned and rolled over to her stomach to bury her face in the comforter.

'I should have told him,' she thought miserably. 'It still would have hurt to say goodbye to him if I had, but maybe I wouldn't be feeling so depressed now if I had. It would have given me something to look forward to when I got home and I wouldn't be laying here wallowing in my own self pity.'

She snorted in disgust and pushed herself up into a sitting position. This type of weakness was exactly what she despised. The bottom line was that she hadn't confessed her feelings to Kyrian before he left and there wasn't anything that she could do about that until she got back to Crystal Tokyo, so she may as well stop moping because it wasn't going to do her any good.

She heard a knock on her door and sighed, hoping that it wasn't Lita. The younger, past form of her mother was a blast to spend time with, but for the last couple of days she had been slightly smothering and overly cheerful. Skye knew that Lita was just trying to boost her spirits over Kyrian leaving, but it grew tiresome after a while.

She drew in a fortifying breath before calling out, "Come in."

The air whooshed out of her lungs in relief when the door opened partway and two heads poked around it to look at her. She grinned at Jayden and Hannah. "Hey guys! What are you two imps up to?"

Confident that Skye wasn't going to blast them for disturbing her, the blonde teen boy scurried into the room, followed by the sapphire haired girl. They closed the door behind them before hurrying to sit on the side of the bed next to the older girl.

Skye took in their anxious, excited faces. "Well, what's going on? You guys look ready to burst."

Jayden gave her a sly grin. "Hannah and I were talking, and we decided that we don't like being left out of the loop. So we've come up with a plan to get the low down on what's going on."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Skye asked in confusion.

Hannah rolled her bright green eyes. "What Jay is trying to say is that we feel like we're being gypped by not going to Elysian with the others. I know they said that they would fill us in on everything when they got back, but we don't think it's right. We are all supposed to be friends and training as a team, so why should we get left behind while the rest of them get to go on their secret mission to Elysian. It's not fair."

Skye ran a hand through her tousled auburn curls. "I know. I feel the same way. But they asked us to stay here while they went to that meeting with Queen Serenity. I myself would love to go and crash that party, but unfortunately we have no way of getting into Elysian by ourselves."

Jayden chuckled darkly. "Who said it would be by ourselves?"

Skye was intrigued. This was just what she needed, some excitement to take her mind off of other depressing thoughts. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

Hannah quickly laid out the plan that she and Jayden had come up with. By the time she finished Skye's slate blue eyes were gleaming as excitedly as theirs were.

"Count me in," she told the two younger troublemakers.

They had to wait about fifteen minutes for it to become dark enough where they wouldn't be easily seen. Then they had to sneak past the few adults that were actually at the penthouse for the evening. Once out they made their way quickly to the roof where they transformed and took off across the rooftops. It was only a few minutes later when the three of them landed on an apartment balcony.

"Are we even sure that she's here?" Skye asked her co-conspirators in a whisper as they slid the glass door open.

"Here's hoping," Jayden whispered back.

Hannah rubbed her hands together in almost maniacal glee. "If she's not then I have a back up plan. There are others that we can interrogate to get our way if we have to."

Skye swore that she could almost see devil horns poking up on top of Hannah's head and she giggled softly to Jayden, "I think your girlfriend has an evil side to her, Smokey."

He bit back a chuckle. "I know! Isn't it great!"

They fell silent as they made their way through the living room and entered a hallway. Their feet made no sound on the thick carpet as they tiptoed down the hall, past a few doors, to the doorway at the end.

Peeking inside the bedroom they had approached, they all held back their squeals of excitement when they saw the one that they were seeking lying asleep on the bed. Skye motioned to the younger two to be quiet and that she would take the lead. Jayden and Hannah nodded their agreement and followed her slowly.

Skye waited until she had reached the side of the bed and her partners had taken up positions to assist her if she needed it. Not that she thought that she would, but sometimes it paid to be safe. Then she leaned over and grabbed her victim with both hands.

"What…!" a voice screeched and then broke off. Eyes widened when the victim saw her attacker.

Skye's grip never loosened as she growled menacingly. "Now listen here! We need your help with something and you're going to give it to us without any problems. Do I make myself clear?"

---

Elysian – Present Time

"Well I'm still drawing a blank here," Alex grumbled. "I've practically dissected my brain and I can't come up with any time that we could have almost stumbled across those swords."

"Me neither," Katie agreed. "I think all I'm doing is giving myself a headache."

DJ shrugged. "I'm just as lost as you guys are. I don't see how something like that could have happened anyway. I seriously doubt that the gods were stupid enough to leave them laying around where someone can easily find them."

Queen Serenity shook her head. "No. That wouldn't be like them at all. I wish I could offer you more insight into how and when such an occurrence may have happened, but I'm afraid that we weren't given that information."

"They'll figure it out eventually," Jonathan said supportively. "The good thing is that we have determined that they hopefully won't be swallowed up by the god powers the same way that we were. Being able to keep their common sense will go a long way in helping them be victorious."

"Speaking of common sense," Edward drawled. "That brings us to the last idiotic thing that we did. You have others that have been training with you, I presume."

DJ nodded. "Yeah. Rini and Emma have both been training with us along with some of our other friends. We've been doing group practices together for a while now."

"That's good," Serenity said softly. "You should believe in your friends and let them help you. Cutting our friends out of our fight with Discord was probably one of the most fatal mistakes that we made. We thought that we were sparing them from the possibility of being hurt, but in reality they were all very capable fighters that could have helped us immensely. If they had been there to help us fight off the youma army that Discord sprang on us then we wouldn't have had to use up all of our energy just to get to him. So keep your friends close and let them assist you. It could make all of the difference in the world."

"Ah ha!" Emma crowed as she latched on tightly to Alex's arm. "You're hearing this, right? Just the other night you were going on about how you wished that I would stay out of the fight when it happens and I told you to shove off. Well now I have confirmation that I should be involved. Face it! You need me."

Althea sighed. "I was an active member of our team too until I became pregnant with Endymion. Not that I would exchange him for anything in the world, but I was a little resentful from time to time about being forced to sit out."

Darien's eyes widened at her statement. "Mother? You knew how to fight?"

Giggles pealed from the former Earth queen. "Endymion, I'm surprised at you! You didn't honestly think that you had inherited your fighting skills from just your father, did you? I was a crystal carrier myself, maybe not the strongest one of the bunch, but I had a few useful talents."

"Yeah, a talent for trouble," Edward grumbled.

Althea elbowed him in the ribs. "You're one to talk about trouble. Besides, I thought you liked my ability to be able to sneak around without anybody seeing me. It came in handy for us when we wanted to get away for a while."

Jess clapped her hands together. "That's right! I got my shadow powers from you!"

"Yes you did," Althea acknowledged. "But I didn't realize that you had inherited my particular gift until Serenity informed me that you had started disappearing and slipping away on your own. It was a logical conclusion that you were using the shadows. There was no other way that such a young child would be able to evade people so easily. I was going to volunteer to teach you how to control those powers when you came for that last visit, but things went crazy before I could."

Jess nodded. "I finally figured it out, but it took me until I was thirteen in this life. I used to wonder, in both lives, why I would get yelled at and accused of sneaking off when I would walk right by people. I always thought that people just weren't paying attention to me, now I know that they couldn't see me. I was using those powers and didn't realize that I was doing it."

"I can do it too," Katie spoke up. "What?" she exclaimed when Jess's eyes snapped toward her. "There is a reason why I'm called Sailor Eclipse. You know, the whole shadow falling across the moon thing. I just don't like using that particular trick unless I have to. I don't like the dark."

She realized that she was sounding childish, but she didn't care at the moment. She felt mentally drained from everything they had heard and was hungry. She needed a recharge before they pressed on.

She climbed to her feet. "I'm heading to the kitchen for a minute. I need a snack and some caffeine, and not necessarily in that order, before I pass out."

"Amen!" Rini seconded as she jumped up beside her. "My stomach has been growling like crazy for the past half hour. I'm surprised that nobody heard it."

"Who says nobody did?" DJ teased. "I thought I was sitting next to a snarling wild animal."

Rini shook a fist at him. "Keep it up and I'll show you a wild animal when I kick your butt!"

Darien took his future son's side. "I know what you mean. I could barely hear any of the conversation over the sound of Serena's vocal stomach."

Serena stood up in a huff and raised her pert little chin regally. "Just for that you can find some other place to sleep tonight, because it won't be next to me you maniacal egotist!"

His eyes glittered playfully. "Ooo, those are big words, Meatball Head. Do you even know what they mean?"

"Why you!" Serena shrieked.

Rini rolled her eyes. "There they go again! Can you two not ever grow up? Never mind! I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall when I'm dealing with you guys. I still swear that I must be adopted; because there is no way that I share any common genes with either of you! Now I'm going to scrounge up some food. Who else is in?"

The adults all laughed as the rest of the teen brigade, DJ, Katie, Alex, and Emma, hurried to follow her in search of a junk food frenzy. But when the door was opened they received a shock as three bodies fell inside on top of them from where they had been leaning with their ears pressed against the door.

The next full minute was nothing but a jumbled pile of flailing arms and legs as people tried to detangle themselves from the melee.

"Ouch!"

"Damn it!"

"My back!"

"Who the hell just pulled my hair?"

"Whoever just put their hand on my ass is getting stomped after this!"

"Oops!"

"Get off!"

"I'm trying!"

Finally they got themselves sorted out and the eight of them sat on the floor as the five that had been about to leave the room stared in shock at the three unexpected visitors.

Rini recovered her voice first. "How did you three get here?"

Skye grinned evilly. "We took a hostage." She held up a rumpled ball of orange fur that she had somehow been able to hold onto during the chaos.

Nebula was hissing and spitting as she twisted in the girl's grasp. "Well I never! I demand that you let me go this instant! I did what you asked me to do, so let me go before I slice that pretty little face of yours into ribbons! I bet Kyrian wouldn't give you a second look if I did that!"

"Bitch!" Skye spat as she tossed the feline aside.

Jess quickly scooped her advisor up in her arms. She may have resented the mangy fleabag sometimes for being so bossy, but Nebula had been with her for a long time and had stood by her side through many major ordeals in her life. And though she didn't show it often, she loved the rust colored cat dearly. "Oh, Bula! Did those rowdy teenagers hurt you?"

Nebula wasn't normally a cuddly cat, but she was so shaken that she took comfort from Jess's embrace. "Physically I'm fine. I think my pride is wounded more than anything else. Those three spawns of Satan snuck into your apartment and grabbed me while I was napping. Then they demanded that I bring them here. They weren't going to let me go, so I had no choice."

"Of course you didn't," Jess cooed as she gently smoothed the ruffled fur.

Jayden snickered. "Yeah, go ahead and play up that sympathy card, hairball! We didn't do anything to you."

Nebula bristled indignantly. "I beg your pardon! Hairball! I bet this whole devious plan was your idea, wasn't it?"

The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees as Hannah scrambled to her feet. "I actually came up with the initial idea. Jay and Skye just helped me fine tune it and carry it out."

"Hmph!" Nebula huffed. "And what would you have done if I hadn't been there? It's not like I spend all of my time hanging around Jess and Andrew's place."

Skye shrugged. "Then we would have gone after Luna and made her call you. We had a backup plan in place."

"Ahem!" Queen Serenity cleared her throat as she stood, along with Jonathan, Edward, and Althea. "I believe that perhaps some more introductions need to be made."

Nebula let out a startled meow as she noticed the former monarchs for the first time and jumped from Jess's arms. "Your majesty!"

Serenity dropped to her knees and opened her arms. "Don't you dare be formal with me at a time like this! Come here!"

Nebula may not have been much of a lap cat, but she hurtled herself at her former mistress in less than two seconds. Serenity stood with her in her arms. "Well it seems that this party is getting bigger by the minute."

Serena giggled. "That seems to be the way my life usually goes. I never know who's going to show up where. I hardly ever get a moment's peace. Anyway, Skye, Jayden, and Hannah, this is Jonathan, former king of the moon, and Edward and Althea, the former king and queen of Earth."

Hannah stood speechless in shock while Jayden and Skye both mumbled, "Whoa!" under their breath.

Serena grinned at their reactions before continuing. "Papa, Edward, and Althea, let me introduce the remaining members of our gang of out of control teens. This tall young lady here is Skye. She is the daughter of Sailor Jupiter and Nephrite. The blonde boy with the loud mouth is Jayden, Sailor Mars and Jadeite's son. And the shell shocked girl next to him is Sailor Mercury and Zoicite's daughter, Hannah."

Althea squealed. "Ooo! It's almost like claiming three more grandchildren! I feel like they're all mine since I practically raised their fathers. Honestly, I used to joke and say that I had five sons instead of one. The generals were always as thick as thieves, and Endymion was usually right in the middle of whatever mischief they had going on."

Darien chuckled. "We weren't that bad. Besides, mother, you always said that laughing about our antics kept you feeling young, not that you were ever old anyway."

"You're still a smooth talker I see, Endymion," Althea replied slyly. "You definitely take after your father. He always thinks that his silver tongue will get him out of trouble as well."

Edward grinned smugly. "It usually works, doesn't?"

The former Earth queen blushed brightly, but grumbled, "Get over yourself!"

"Ugh!" Rini groaned. "The grandparents are just as depraved as the parents are! Let's hit the kitchen and leave the adults alone for a while you guys. All this mushy, lovey dovey crap is making me nauseous."

Jayden snickered as the group of teens began making their way out of the room. "Speaking of lovey dovey, where's ole horseboy at Rini? I figured the two of you would be off someplace engaging in some mushy activity of your own."

The pink haired princess growled menacingly. "Shove it up your ass, Jay! He's around here somewhere, but he still has work to do. It's not exactly an easy job to be a dream priest you know! And he's not a horse, he transforms into a Pegasus! There's a big difference."

Jayden rolled his blueberry eyes. "So he's a horse with wings and a horn! It's not that much of a difference. Hey! Does that technically mean that you're in an interspecies relationship? That's weird."

"I'm going to murder you!" Rini shrieked and lunged after the laughing blonde as he ran away.

The rest of the teens stood in shock for a moment before bursting into laughter and chasing after their friends.

Jess shook her head and sighed. "Our future will never be boring, will it?"

Andrew chuckled. "Not with that group around. That's why I'm depending on the doc over here to keep me supplied with an infinite store of Xanax in the future so I can keep my sanity." He hooked a thumb at Darien.

Darien laughed. "I know what you mean. I think we're all going to need it to survive raising them."

"They are a spirited bunch," Serenity said softly. "But underneath all of the teasing I can sense the closeness between them all. And that is a good thing. They will need to be a unified force to take down Discord. Now that we have shared our story and explained things to them a little better I can only hope that it's enough. But it's out of our hands now. There's nothing more we can tell them."

"But you're not leaving yet, are you?" Serena cried in a panic. "I thought we had the whole night to be together and there are still hours left before dawn. I'm not ready to say goodbye yet!"

"Calm down, bunny," Jonathan said gently. "We were saving it for a surprise, but I guess now is just as good a time as any. We'll actually get to stick around for a day or so. Call it a divine loophole if you want to. Zeus granted us one Earth night in these bodies, but since we are in Elysian and time moves differently here it gives us more time. We don't have to go back until the current night in the outside world ends."

Serena's eyes shown excitedly. "Really? Oh, this is so amazing!"

Edward elbowed Jonathan. "Maybe we can get those kids to show us what they know and perhaps give a few pointers. I bet we have a few tricks up our sleeves that they don't know about."

Jonathan grinned devilishly. "Are you saying we should invite our dear replacements to a little sparring match? That could be fun."

"Oh no," Serenity moaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "I knew bringing you two with me would cause trouble. I should have just brought Althea and left you men behind."

Althea sighed and nodded. "I still don't see how two overgrown children became kings. You two are absolutely impossible!"

Just then a panting, red-faced Aurora appeared in the doorway. "Would anyone around here care to explain to me why my kitchen has suddenly been overrun by a pack of rambunctious teenagers? They almost trampled me to death!"

The eight adults burst into laughter.

---

Elysian – The Far Future

"I'm sooo bored!" Katie complained, banging her fingers down on the piano keys. "I don't see why we have to stay locked up here like prisoners. I know Trista said it was to keep us from interfering in the past any more, but damn! It's not like we could do anything anyway without a time key. I'm sure I don't have the ability to traverse the time plane anymore like I did before."

Alex grinned up from where he was fiddling with a computer. "Wow! Somebody's grumpy today." Then he sighed. "Okay, I know what you mean. I'm kinda bored myself. I can't get this stupid computer to hook up with the network in the outside world. It keeps popping up 'connection not available'. I've tried every signal that I can think of and I still get nothing. It's like the whole grid is down or something. I can't get a thing on what's going on back home."

"You guys are just suffering from cabin fever," DJ drawled without looking up from the book he was reading. "It was bound to happen sooner or later since we've been here for so long and you two have the attention span of ants."

"Is that a professional opinion, Dr. Shields?" Katie sneered viciously and then looked horrified at herself. "Sorry," she mumbled.

The hurt look in DJ's eyes lingered for a minute before it faded and he smiled gently. "It's okay."

Katie stared down at the piano keys, tears of frustration in her eyes. No, it wasn't okay. She'd had no right to throw it in his face that he had never been able to achieve his dream of becoming a doctor, especially since it had been her actions that had ruined his life. But she had tried her best to fix everything and had succeeded to a point. Her brother was alive once again, and that counted for something. Now they were just waiting to see what would happen when their past selves took action and time reset itself. If only the little brats would hurry up and do something already! This waiting was becoming unbearable.

"Hey, Lex," Emma grumbled as she walked into the room, twirling a small cell phone in her fingers. After much begging and pleading, Rini had allowed Emma to use her specially made phone that was able to call out from Elysian to call Mina and let her know that she was alive and safe. Emma had been careful to not say where she was and who she was with, but it had comforted her mother to know that she was okay. "I was trying to call mom and touch base with her, but I can't get the call to go through. It's like the phone is dead or something."

Alex frowned and took the phone from her to study the screen. He shook his head. "This doesn't make any sense. It's just like the computer. It's not picking up on any kind of a signal. Amy made this phone personally, so I know that it is programmed to scan for a connecting signal even if the regular network goes down. What the hell is going on?"

Just then Rini's enraged voice exploded in the foyer. "What the hell do you mean I can't go home, Helios? I want to go and see my mom and you can't stop me!"

The four inadvertent eavesdroppers hurried to the door to find out what was happening.

Helios held his struggling wife in his arms. "Sweetheart, just listen to me for a minute. You can't go home right now. There's nothing for you to go back to. At this moment events in the past are causing time fluxes and everything is being restructured. That's why I want you to stay here. If you attempt to go home you will be sucked up into the void along with everyone else. Once everything has calmed down you will be returned to your proper place and time."

Rini leaned back to look at him with teary maroon eyes. "But mom, dad, and everyone else…"

Helios shook his head. "Their lives are in the process of being rewritten. But Pluto told me that the outcome of the final battle with Discord hasn't been decided yet, so the time fluxes keep shifting back and forth between two probable futures. So until things calm down I want you to stay here where it's safe."

"So that's why the computer and the phone aren't working," Alex spoke up, announcing their presence.

The white haired priest nodded. "Time outside of this realm is unstable at the moment, so essentially we are closed off until it decides which way it wants to go."

Katie read the worry in those amber eyes and whispered, "Is it bad?"

He sighed. "It's hard to say right now. It could go either way." He closed his eyes and tried not to think about the visions that he had seen. In one, the Earth was saved and everyone went on to enjoy fulfilling lives. Rini still became his wife and everyone was happy. In the other a lot of the people he cared for died and the world became a much different place than it had been.

"Helios," Rini's trembling voice pulled him back to the present. She raised a shaking hand to his cheek. "It is bad, isn't it?"

He gave her an encouraging smile. "It may not be. We have to have hope that things will work out. All is not lost. The Trinity may still be used successfully and rid the world of that monster. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

DJ spoke quietly to his brother-in-law. "Do you think they can do it, our past selves? Do you honestly believe that they have a shot at pulling this off?"

One side of Helios's mouth kicked up in a rueful grin. "That's the same as asking me if I think the three of you would be capable of defeating Discord. And if you were to ask me that my answer would be…absolutely! When I look at the three of you, I see more than just people that have had to face obstacles that most people could never fathom. I see three people that are filled with determination who will never back down. Your past selves may be younger, but that same fire and passion burns inside of them. I believe that they will fight back with everything that they have. And if the gods are willing they will be victorious."

"I just wish that there was something that we could do to help them," Katie sighed.

"Would you be willing to actually act on that statement?" Sailor Pluto asked as she appeared in a puff of pink smoke. "If you are, then I could use your help, especially you, Katie. You have a particular talent that could be most beneficial. You just have to promise me that you won't turn into a psychopathic rogue again."

"Hey!" Katie snapped. "My sanity may have been questionable the past fifteen years, but I was never a psychopath. I was just…um…crazy?" She looked to DJ to read his response.

He grinned and crossed his arms. "That works for me. You were definitely a Looney Toon. But I still love you anyway."

Katie batted her lashes dramatically. "Aw, baby…you always know just the right words to say to make me melt."

Predictably, Emma went starry eyed at the playful, romantic banter while Alex made a gagging sound and turned away muttering, "Get a room!"

"Anyway, Trista," Katie gushed as she turned back to the time guardian. "What do you need me to do? I could use a little action."

Pluto let out a low chuckle. "Well I'm afraid this won't give you much action. What I need involves a great amount of stealth."

Alex cackled and rubbed his hands together like a movie villain. "Ooo…mystery and intrigue. Sounds like my kind of gig."

Emma snorted. "You play entirely too many video games."

DJ rolled his eyes and then looked to Pluto. "I guess you can count us in."

---

Elysian – Present Time

She was standing beside a large, ornately carved, white marble fountain, staring at a crescent moon that had been carved into the side.

"Hey, there's a sun carved here," Alex called out nearby, fingering the picture embedded in the rim of the fountain.

"Cool. I found the symbol for Earth," DJ said, laying a hand on it.

She reached out and gently touched the crescent moon with her fingertips. The moment she did she felt a burning sensation on her forehead…then everything went black.

Katie jolted awake, looking around wildly for a moment before she realized that she was in her room in Elysian. She tried to sit up in the bed, but stopped when she felt something weighing her down.

She turned her head to look beside her and smiled at the sight of the raven dark head on the pillow next to hers. She and the rest of the teens had finally given into fatigue in the early morning hours after their long day and emotionally draining night and had decided to retreat upstairs to catch a few hours of sleep and recharge, leaving the adults downstairs to continue visiting with the former monarchs.

DJ had protested at first when she had dragged him into her room with her, claiming that Andrew would kill him if he caught him there. But after a little pouting and begging on her part and her reassurances that she would handle her father's past self if he made a big deal out of things, he had joined her on the bed and held her close as they fell asleep. It had been innocent enough. They had only shared a few kisses before slipping off to dreamland and they were both still fully clothed. There was no reason for any of the not quite yet parents to throw a fit.

Katie reached up and swept back the dark hair that fell over DJ's eyes as she felt her heart swell inside her chest. He was such a major part of her life now and she loved him more than she had ever thought could be possible. Just a few months ago she had thought that she would never have a chance with her prince, and now here he was with her. And it felt right.

DJ shifted a little and the arm he had draped across her waist tightened a fraction before his eyelids blinked open to reveal his hazy, sleep clouded, sky blue eyes. "Hey," he said in a gravelly voice.

She buried her head into his shoulder. "Hey yourself."

He yawned and stretched a little. "How long have we been out?"

She picked up his arm to look at the watch on his wrist, squinting to see the hands in the dim glow of the small lamp burning on a table in a corner. "Umm…a couple of hours maybe. It hasn't been that long. It's still dark outside."

"Hmm…" he hummed. "So what are you doing awake then? We've had a busy day and night and I know you've got to be tired."

She shrugged and pushed his arm slightly away so that she could sit up. "I don't know. I guess my body is just saying that it's had enough rest for now," she replied as she finger combed her long, rumpled, light blonde hair.

DJ's larger hand covered hers, stilling its movements. "Nice try, Kat. But you can't hide things from me, remember. So what's bothering you?"

She laughed softly and gently batted his hand away. "Nothing's bothering me exactly. I just had this really odd dream a few minutes ago and it woke me up."

His brow creased in concern. "What kind of dream?"

"It wasn't a nightmare," she quickly reassured him. "It was just strange. It almost felt real in a way." Her nose scrunched up as she thought. Then she asked, "Do you remember if we ever took any trips when we were little where we explored any caves or caverns?"

He closed his eyes for a minute and she thought that he had gone back to sleep, but then he opened his eyes again and looked at her. "Not that I remember. Why?"

She shook her head. "It's just that you and Alex were in the dream with me and we were in some kind of cave, but we were all little kids again. I just thought that maybe I was dreaming about something that we had done in the past. It's all kind of a blur now, but I do remember seeing a fountain in it."

"A fountain," DJ murmured. He didn't know why, but it felt like her words were trying to jog loose some memory buried deep in his brain.

Katie leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Hey, don't stress about it. It was just a dream. They're not supposed to make sense." She hopped up from the bed and walked over to the window where she parted the curtains slightly. "It looks like the sun will be rising in about an hour or so. I wonder what today holds for us."

DJ groaned and rolled over onto his stomach. "Who knows. After last night it could be anything. I think Grandma Serenity and the others are through with explaining the past to us though."

"Good," she replied emphatically with a shudder. "Seeing what Discord did to their heads was one of the worst things I've ever experienced in my life."

He heard the edge to her voice and rolled back over to look at her standing by the window. He knew he was bringing up a sore subject, but he had to ask. "Kat, what exactly did that bastard do to you when he held you for those three days? I know the general outline, but I want to know it all."

She turned away with a sigh. "No…you don't."

"Yes I do," he insisted as he slid off the bed.

She whirled to face him, and for a moment the cold, anger filled Katie from a few months ago glared back at him. "What the hell do you want to know the whole sordid story for?" she spat hatefully.

He refused to be swayed, so he approached her slowly and cupped her face gently in his hands. "Because I want to know everything about you, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I already know so much, what makes you happy and sad, your favorite foods, movies, and music. I know what a loving and giving person you are. Hell! I feel like I know you better than I know myself. I just wish that you would believe in me enough to trust me with that dark period in your life. You've kept it inside for so long. Please, baby, just let it out."

The coldness faded from her eyes as they filled with tears. The she flung herself against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist as she cried. "It was a nightmare! No…it was worse than any nightmare!"

"Shh," he whispered as he smoothed a hand over her hair. "Just take your time and tell me exactly what happened."

She sucked in a few shuddering breaths before pulling back a little to swipe at her face. After a few quiet moments she began to speak.

"The night that it all happened was both the best and worst night of my life. I successfully gave my first public performance and had gotten my first kiss from the prince of my dreams. But then you ignored me all through dinner and then ran off to dance with Sasha. I retaliated by dancing with Jack. After a few minutes I had a chance to calm down and slipped away from him to try to find you so we could talk. I thought that maybe you were just embarrassed because you had kissed me, so I was going to confess to you how I felt about you in hopes that you would return my feelings. But when I found you on that terrace you were kissing Sasha."

"Correction, she was kissing me. She threw herself at me and caught me off guard," DJ grumbled.

Katie rolled her eyes. "I know that now, but I didn't then. Anyway, I felt like my heart had shattered into a million pieces at that moment and all I could think about was getting out of there. I started to ask Alex to go home with me, but he was having such a good time with Emma that I didn't disturb him. Instead I snuck out and ran all the way home. I was so upset that I didn't realize that anything was wrong until after I got inside. My parents always left a few lights burning when we were out for the night, but when I got there it was dark. I was in the entry hall fumbling for the light switch when the guardian attacked. I could barely see anything except for his glowing red eyes. He tackled me to the floor and I managed to kick him off. I was going to transform, but that was when I remembered that I wasn't wearing my pendant. I ran for the stairs to get to my room, but he blocked the way. That was when he pulled out the knife.

He chased me all over the bottom floor of the house, swinging that knife at me every time he got within arms length of me. He always made sure to cut me off before I could make it to the stairs. It's like he knew what I was after. I fought back with all I had, and I got in a few good hits, but he countered my moves fairly easy. I finally made it into the kitchen, hoping to get my hands on a weapon of my own, but he was right on my tail so I couldn't stop to look for one. All I could think of was staying away from that knife. He had already managed to cut me several times and it hurt so much. At last I caught a break and made it to the staircase before him, but he grabbed me near the top and knocked me down. Then he buried that blade in my arm and sliced me from shoulder to elbow."

She paused then, unconsciously rubbing her upper left arm where the worst of her scars had once been. DJ tried to pull her closer, but she shook her head.

"No, let me finish. I won't be able to if you hold me right now. Well I almost blacked out at that point. But then he loosened his grip on me to reach for something in his pocket and I was able to throw him off. He was back on his feet almost before I was. I made it to my room, but he was so close that I couldn't stop to lock him out. I dove for my jewelry box where my pendant was, but he spun me around and shoved me into my vanity table, scattering everything. I kept fighting back, but I was hurting and dizzy. He threw me around a bit, into the walls and stuff. Then finally he pinned me to the bed and jammed a syringe in my neck. It must have been a tranquilizer or something because I passed out. When I woke up I was in total darkness. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. I never knew a place could be that dark. I was scared out of my mind."

"I'm sure you were," DJ replied in a shaking, anger-laced voice. It was a good thing that Katie had already destroyed the guardian that had assaulted her so brutally, because if she hadn't he would be tempted to go after the demon himself and rip him apart with his bare hands. "What happened next?" he prodded gently.

Katie turned away from him to stare out the window at the few stars that still speckled the dark, early morning sky. "I was alone in the dark, hurting and bleeding. I don't know how long I'd been there, but then the voice started talking to me. I tried to shut it out at first. I just wanted someone to come save me, my parents, your parents, Alex…you. At that point I didn't care who. I just wanted to get out of there. But then visions began filling my head. I saw everyone going on about their lives like my disappearance wasn't a big deal. Every now and then someone would mention trying to find me, but then somebody else would say that I was a big girl and could take care of myself. I kept telling myself that it wasn't true, that my family and friends loved me and would do everything they could to save me. But eventually I became overwhelmed and I let myself give into the despair."

She turned her head to look at him sadly. "I had a crazy fantasy. I pictured you barging in just like the hero princes from the romantic fairytales. I wanted you to come and carry me away from all of the pain and the sadness. But I kept seeing you with Sasha, and it kept playing over and over in my mind like a bad dream that wouldn't go away. Finally I gave up. I figured that if everybody could be happy without me, then what use was I? I wasn't that strong of a fighter, and it seemed that the only thing I was really good at was my music, so I didn't see the need to keep fighting. I just shut down."

DJ leaned a shoulder against the window frame and stared out at the darkness as well. "We looked for you, all of us. Alex and I went crazy with searching. The moment we pieced together enough of the story to know that you had been taken we tore out of your house and began tearing the city apart trying to find you. Alex was wigging out because he couldn't sense you with the twin bond the way he always could. It was like you had simply disappeared. I was close to losing it myself. The only thing I had keeping me grounded was this." He reached out to trail his fingers over the silver charm bracelet on her wrist.

Then he sighed deeply. "I knew the moment that I found it tangled in the blanket on your bed that you had been hurt badly. Of course the blood smeared around only made things worse. I couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep. All I could focus on was finding you. My dad and Andrew finally forced Alex and I to take a break after we had been going nonstop for two days. I did finally doze off, and when I did all I could see was darkness and hear you crying that you were all alone. I wanted to save you. I wanted to be the hero that you thought I was and charge to your rescue. I'm sorry that I wasn't."

Katie shook her head violently, tears flying from her lashes. "But you did save me, in more ways than one. I would have drowned in the bay that night if you and Alex hadn't shown up when you did and pulled me out. I remember being tied to that pillar as the water rose. At first I wanted to die. I was wishing the water would hurry and cover me up so that I wouldn't feel pain anymore. But right before I went under I thought of you and my life, and I decided that I wasn't ready to give up yet. I wasn't ready to give into Discord so easily. I thought it was too late though. And then I heard your voice call my name. The next thing I knew I found myself waking up with you hovering over me. Part of me wanted to grab you and kiss you senseless, but I had made a promise to myself during those long moments underwater. It's true what they say, that your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die. I saw my life, and I didn't like everything that I saw. I didn't want to be seen as weak anymore. I wanted to become strong like my mom, like your mom, like all of the rest of the scouts."

DJ swiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. "But you are strong, Kat. You are one of the strongest people I have ever known and have always been. Hell, you rank right up there with my mom and Jess." Then he gave her a lopsided grin. "And you are just as beautiful as they are too."

She giggled despite the blush that rose to stain her cheeks a faint pink and peeked up at him from under her lowered lashes. "You did more than save my life though. You saved my sanity as well. For all of those months after the kidnapping I became focused so much on improving my fighting skills that I lost sight of what living was all about. I let my anger rule me and I turned into a hateful, spiteful person that made everyone around her miserable. I didn't like her too much."

"Neither did I," DJ agreed with a chuckle.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "My point is that when we came to the past I felt like I had a fresh start, a chance to begin again. I had told myself to give up on you, that there was no way that you could ever return my feelings, but you proved me wrong and helped me to become myself again. You gave me my life back, and I will love you forever for it."

He smirked as he snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. "So you'll love me forever, huh?"

Katie watched in fascination as his lips lowered toward hers. "Maybe even longer than that," she barely breathed before going up slightly on her toes to close the gap between them and kiss him.

It definitely wasn't the most intense kiss they had ever shared, but it was probably the most emotional. It was slow, almost languid really, but each of them poured every bit of love they could into that kiss, trying to express to each other the feelings that words seemed too weak to explain.

When they slowly parted a minute later DJ whispered, "Wow!"

Katie's starry eyes fluttered open with a smile. "I think that sums it up nicely." Then she hugged him tightly as she rested her head on his shoulder.

His fingers trailed lightly up and down her back. "So do you feel better now that you've finally gotten that weight off of your chest?"

She giggled and squeezed him. "You know what, I think I do. I never thought I'd be able to tell anybody about what happened to me during those three days, not even Alex, and he's my twin. But talking to you is as easy as breathing. Maybe you should consider becoming a shrink instead of a medical doctor."

"Oh no!" he exclaimed. "I don't mind knowing what's going on in your head. I want to know that. But I don't want to spend all of my time picking people's heads and psychoanalyzing them. I don't even know if I'll ever even get to become a doctor at all."

"Well I still have hope for you," Katie replied softly. "The Serena and Darien of this time are pursuing their own dreams despite the fact that they know what their future holds. And your parents love you a lot. I just can't picture them forcing you to give up your dream to do something that you don't want to."

He chuckled. "Maybe you're right. I guess we'll see later on down the road. But for now this wannabe doctor says that we should go back to bed and try to squeeze in another hour of sleep while we can. There's no telling what will happen once the sun rises."

Katie grinned impishly. "Yes sir, Dr. Shields! You're going to tuck me in, right?"

He growled and ducked down to nip at her neck. "You better be glad we're in a palace full of so many people or I might be tempted to do more than that."

She laughed and pushed him gently toward the bed. She didn't know why, but she paused to take one last look out the window. For some reason her eyes were drawn to the distant tree line, and what she saw made her freeze.

"DJ," she said quietly. "I think someone's running around in the woods."

"What?" he replied, rejoining her by the window. "Where?"

She pointed toward the thick trees. "Over there. I swear I just saw someone."

He rolled his eyes. "There's close to twenty people staying here right now. It could be anyone. It's probably just someone out taking a walk."

"In the woods at night?" she countered. "I know this is Elysian and probably one of the safest places in the universe to be, but someone would have to be crazy to go tramping around in the woods in the dark, even if they have superpowers. Besides, this person didn't look exactly human."

That caught his attention. "What do you mean not exactly human."

She shrugged. "It's hard to explain. I just…Look! There it is again, and now I think there are more than one!" she cried, pointing through the glass.

DJ squinted and took a good look. Sure enough, he saw a few figures just inside the trees. They appeared human shaped, but were completely black and shrouded in shadows despite the faint light of the stars. "What are those?"

"Let's go find out!" Katie exclaimed, grabbing his hand to pull him behind her. They paused long enough to put on their shoes and then ran as quietly as they could into the hall.

They were almost to the stairs when Katie ground to a halt, almost wrenching DJ's shoulder out of place. "Alex!" she hissed. "We can't go without him. You know, all for one and one for all."

DJ smirked. "Wasn't that the motto of the musketeers?"

She face palmed and glared at him from between her fingers. "You know what I mean, you jerk! We can't leave him behind though. We're a team."

"Yeah, I knew what you meant, Tinkerbell," he couldn't help but tease. "So go wake the big idiot up and tell him to move it. If we wait too long then whatever those things are out there may be gone."

Katie scrambled a short way back down the hall and eased open the door to the bedroom her brother was using. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, but then she saw her brother sprawled across the bed. His light brown hair was messier than ever and he snored lightly with every breath. The golden haired Emma was curled up against his side.

She tiptoed to the bed and shook his shoulder lightly. "Lex! Lex, wake up!" She got no response so she shook him harder. "Come on, Alex! Wake up!"

He snorted in his sleep and attempted to roll away from her.

"Damn it, Alexander! Wake your ass up!" she whisper screamed at him as she grabbed his shoulder roughly.

"Huh?" he grumbled as his eyelids parted. "What the…? Kat? What's wrong?"

She shook her head. "Just get up. DJ and I saw some suspicious figures out by the woods, so we're going to check it out. We wanted you to go with us."

His sapphire blue eyes lost their sleepy look and became concerned as he gently slid out from under Emma's arm to sit up on the side of the bed and reach for his shoes. "What kind of suspicious figures?"

"I don't know," she answered. "We couldn't get a good look at them. But it didn't look like anyone from our group so we thought we should take a look."

"Good idea," he agreed as he stood. He paused to pull a blanket over the still sleeping Emma and kiss her lightly on the forehead before pocketing his mini-computer and following after his sister.

"Good morning, Sunshine," DJ joked as they approached him near the stairs.

"Screw you," Alex growled. "What have you got to be so chipper about? It's the freaking middle of the night."

"Are we going or not?" Katie interrupted them as she started down the stairs.

"Yeah, yeah! We're coming," the two boys grumbled as they followed her. In mere seconds they were downstairs, across the grand foyer, and slipping out the front door.

"Which way?" Alex asked when they stood at the top of the palace's front steps.

"That way," DJ and Katie said together as they pointed to the right.

"Let's get going then," Alex replied as they struck out at a brisk run toward the distant trees.

If they had looked up, they would have seen four amused people watching them leave out on their extremely early morning jog from the balcony of one of the upper level drawing rooms. Since they were only spirits temporarily inhabiting human bodies, they had no need for sleep and were simply whiling away the time while the living caught a little rest.

"So where do you think the three of them are sneaking off to?" Jonathan asked his companions.

Edward snorted. "Hmph! They're probably going out to find some trouble to get into."

Althea arched a brow at him. "You're one to talk about getting into trouble."

"I don't think that's it," Serenity stated softly. "I think something momentous is about to occur. Don't you feel it in the air?"

Both of the men shrugged, but Althea gasped as she sensed it. "That power…!"

Serenity nodded. "Somebody out there is leading them toward their destinies."

---

A/N I'm sorry again for the long wait, but I hope you guys enjoyed this. Well needless to say that there is still more to come in this little drama involving the former and current Trinity bearers, but soon we will be hurtling toward the Grand Finale. DJ, Katie, and Alex have gone off to hunt down mysterious people in the woods, and I'm sure most of you were able to put together who they are and where they are leading them. The full power of the Galactic Trinity is about to come to life, and Discord better watch his ass, because as it was pointed out in this chapter, our new trio is not exactly like the old one. To those of you also reading Rekindled and Bad Boys, I hope to have updates ready for them soon. As always, reviews are loved, appreciated, and highly encouraged, so feel free to send them my way. Lots of love and hugs!

~Sere~