A/N I didn't think I would ever be able to get this up! Those of you that keep up with my Facebook page know that I have been going through some computer issues, but hopefully I've got that all lined out now. I want to keep this short and sweet, so I won't go into all the drama and bore you to death. Anyway, I have a nice long posting for you here, full of happy couples. There is some bickering between some of them, but I assure you that everyone ends up happy in the end. The fight with Discord is only hours away, and I refuse to let any of the couples go into the battle with bad feelings between them. So let me get those hugs out so you can get started. BIG HUGS TO:
little princess of mercury
sabina21
SailorPrincess1237
Atem's Sister Atea
saveme57
beethoven123
Litalove
DizzyDiana
Wonderwomanbatmanfan
Serandi82
Starrlight1812
CaughtInAFantasy
TheMoonPrincess110
GoldenDragon326
KageNoNeko
CharmedSerenity3
nickybluejess
SailorMercuryROCKS
MeganLeBlanc
Komekoro
Seredhiel05
Oodles and oodles of thank yous to you all! I'm going to shut up now and let you get on with it.
ENJOY!
The Galactic Trinity
Chapter 38
Times Intertwine – Part 2
"So what do you think of all of this?" Jayden asked Hannah as they walked hand in hand down one of the wide corridors together.
Her dark blue hair brushed her shoulders as she shook her head. "I don't know. I guess I'm more nervous than I am anything. You know how I am. I like to have everything planned out. But we can't plan for anything in a case like this. There are too many variables to consider and too many different ways that things can go."
He chuckled. "This is war, Hannah. You could have a hundred different strategies planned, only to have them fall through when the time comes. Sometimes you just have to jump into the thick of it and start blasting. You know, just go with your gut."
"I'm not exactly a 'go with your gut' kind of person. That's more of your forte," she grumbled. "You like to shoot first and ask questions later."
"Yep! That's me!" he quipped. Then he nudged her shoulder playfully. "Come on, cheer up! We'll go in, blast some bad guys, let DJ, Katie, and Alex whip the big main baddie, and it will all be over. It'll be fine."
She suddenly stopped walking and ripped her hand from his. "And what if it's not fine?" she almost shrieked. "Everybody that we know and love is going to be in this fight, my parents, your parents, all of our friends and family. People could get hurt, even die."
Her green eyes filled up with tears as she turned away to look out one of the tall windows that overlooked the city. After a moment she whispered shakily, "You could die, Jay, or my mom or dad. And it scares me to think about it. I won't lie and say that I'm not afraid of the fight itself, because I am. But the thought of losing someone that I love scares me more than the thought of facing Discord and his army."
He joined her at the window and slung an arm around her shoulders. "Aw, Snowflake, you're worrying too much."
Her head snapped around and her wet eyes burned into his. "Don't pick on me right now. I'm being serious. I want you to make me a promise, okay."
His laughter died as he saw how serious she was. "Okay."
She turned to face him fully and grabbed the front of his shirt in both hands. "Don't you die on me! Whatever happens, just promise me that you won't get yourself killed. Promise me!"
A wave of love flowed through him at her words. There had been times over the last few weeks when he had wondered how to exactly classify his and Hannah's relationship. They called each other boyfriend and girlfriend, and they were together almost constantly, but there were times when their relationship seemed to be more of just a deep friendship than anything else. Sure, they kissed and hugged, but the kisses between them were nothing more than innocent pecks. Sometimes they evolved into prolonged meetings of the lips, but they were still chaste.
He had wondered though, what it would be like to kiss her like he'd seen his father kiss his mother, or like he'd seen DJ and Alex kiss their girlfriends, but he'd never worked up the nerve to try. Deep inside he was afraid that he might do it wrong or that Hannah would get offended if he tried.
But as he looked down into those glassy, bright green eyes and saw how much she cared for him, he had a surge of confidence. He moved his hands to her waist and tugged her closer to him as he dipped his head down to fasten his mouth over hers. After a few seconds he parted his lips and boldly let his tongue swipe at her lips.
Hannah's mouth opened as she let out a startled squeak, and he deepened the kiss, letting his tongue travel farther in until it touched hers. Then she took him by surprise as she began moving her tongue around his, tentatively kissing him back.
They explored shyly for a few moments as they learned this new way of kissing together, but they soon got the hang of it. Hannah's hands moved up from his shirt so that she could wrap her arms around his neck, and he slid one of his hands up her back to the back of her neck.
They continued their tongue duel until the need to breathe finally forced them to part. But even after the kiss was broken they only moved their lips a few inches apart from each other.
Jayden lifted his other hand and gently wiped away the tear tracks from her cheeks. Then he told her softly, "I promise you, Snowflake, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that we both make it through tomorrow in one piece."
She hugged him closer and buried her face in his neck. Her cool breath swept across his skin as she sighed. "I guess that's the best that any of us can hope for. I just don't want you doing anything stupid. You can be quite impulsive sometimes."
He chuckled. "That's why I'll have you there to help keep me in line. Now, how about we drop all of this depressing crap for the night and go watch a movie."
She raised her head and smiled at him. "On one condition."
"What's that?" he asked.
"Kiss me again," she whispered as she drew his head back down to hers.
"So, how does it feel to be home again?" Kyrian asked as he lay back on the blanket with his hands behind his head.
Skye sat next to him with her knees pulled up and her arms wrapped around them. She shrugged. "I don't know. It's been kinda weird today. I guess things will settle down once we get this other bullshit out of the way."
"True," he agreed. "So what are your plans after that?"
She lay back next to him and sighed. "I'm not completely sure. It sounds like everyone else except Rini is going to be taking off for America soon, but that's not really my thing. I'm more of a stick close to home kind of girl. I don't really have any big college aspirations either, but I am thinking about applying to the culinary school here and working with my mom at the restaurant. I've always enjoyed working there."
"Sticking with the family business, huh?" he joked.
She rolled her eyes. "Very funny! I guess it's just something in my genes. Mom's a chef, and both of her parents were too. It's in my blood. What about you? Do you have some grand plan for your life?"
"Who me?" Nah!" he scoffed. "I mean, I know that someday I want what everyone else wants, a home and family of my own. But I have absolutely no idea about what to do with the rest of my life. I only enrolled in college to have an excuse to get out on my own. If my mother had her way I would be living at home for all eternity. Like you, I have no interest in globe-trotting around the world, but I knew I wanted something more than living out my days in our tiny little village. I'll probably just major in something useless like philosophy just so I can get a degree under my belt."
She stared up at the star filled sky. "I guess none of us can really know for sure what direction our life will go. If my dad were here right now, he could look up at the sky and tell us exactly what the stars are saying at this moment. But the stars change just like everything else does. Their message can change from night to night. Nothing is ever certain. We just have to go with the flow."
Kyrian rolled to his side and propped his head on a hand to look down at her. "That's all we can do. We have to roll with the punches and deal with whatever hand life gives us. I just want you to promise me that you'll be careful tomorrow. It would kill me if something were to happen to you."
Skye reached up and patted his cheek. "Aw, is the big, bad, magic man getting worried?"
His jet black eyes glittered dangerously. "I'm trying to be serious here! I love you. You know I do. And whenever I do think about my future, I can't picture any other woman in it but you. So promise me that you'll take care of yourself."
Her fingers on his cheek changed from patting to stroking. "I promise you that I'll be as careful as I can, but I have a job to do too. I'm a member of a team, and the others are depending on me to do my part. But I do promise that I'll try to get back in one piece if I can. But this could be a really bad fight, and I don't know how things are going to play out."
He turned his head and kissed her palm. "I know. You are my mighty warrior woman. That's one of the things I love about you."
"I love you too," she whispered as she felt tears beginning to sting her eyes.
He bent over her and gave her what started out as a gentle kiss, but it quickly escalated into something more. Before long he was laying fully on top of her as he thoroughly ravished her mouth.
Skye was lost in a haze of sensations, until she felt his hand moving under her shirt. Then she ripped her mouth from his and gasped, "We have to stop. We're in the middle of the garden. Anybody could come along and see us."
He grinned down at her wickedly. "I can take care of that. Just give me a second."
Suddenly, everything swirled and went dark around them. When she could see again, Skye realized that the ground beneath her had turned very soft.
"What just happened?" she squeaked.
He arched a brow at her. "You didn't forget that your little Trinity friends weren't the only ones that could teleport alone, did you? We're in my apartment."
"Your apartment!" she exclaimed, looking around in the dim light. Sure enough, she was in the middle of a rumpled, king-sized bed that took up most of the space in the bedroom. The only other furniture was a small dresser and a bedside table that had been squeezed in. A few movie and rock band posters had been tacked up on the walls.
She began giggling. "You weren't kidding when you said your place was tiny, were you?"
He shrugged. "It's just me, so I don't need much space. It's less that I have to keep clean."
"But you're a big guy," she pointed out. "I bet you can't even turn around in here without bumping into something."
"The living room is a little bit bigger. And that's where I spend most of my time when I'm here. I'm usually only in here to sleep," he told her.
"Well, I'm sure it's nice and all, but I can't be here," she protested. "What if someone goes looking for me and can't find me?"
"Were you told not to leave the palace grounds?" he countered.
"No," she answered hesitantly. "We were only told to not go out alone and to not leave the boundaries of the city."
He grinned wolfishly. "Then there's no problem. You're not alone, and we're only a few blocks away from the palace. So you're not breaking any rules."
"Technically speaking," she agreed. "But I'm still trying to figure out why you brought me here."
He leaned down to breathe in her ear. "I want to have one night with you before we go into battle tomorrow. I know that we haven't really talked about where our relationship is heading, but I hope that we will be together forever."
She shuddered as he kissed her neck and gasped, "Kyrian!"
He propped himself up on his elbows to look down at her again. "If you're not comfortable with this, then tell me now. I don't want to do anything that you don't want to. All you have to do is give me the word, and I'll have you back home in two seconds."
As she looked up at him, she felt those stupid tears prickling her eyes again. She always known that he was kind and considerate, even if he had teased her a lot during the past several years. He may long for an independent life, but he was devoted to his family, especially his mother and his little brothers and sister.
Most guys his age would be pulling out every dirty trick in the book to try and get a girl into bed with them. But he was leaving the decision up to her, letting her decide if she was ready to take the next step in their relationship.
They had spent a lot of time together in Elysian recently, and they'd had quite a few intimate moments together. But despite what Emma would describe as 'heavy make out sessions with some foreplay involved', they had never actually made love.
But she knew that he was the one, the only one for her. And being with him just felt right. Then she looked over at the illuminated numbers on his beside clock and sighed. "You have really rotten timing. You know that?"
His confused expression was absolutely priceless. "What do you mean?"
She flung an arm over her eyes. "I mean that it's already 11:30. I have to be home by midnight when I go out, or the parents blow a gasket. So I have to check in with them in the next thirty minutes or they will have total meltdowns."
"Hmm…" he mused. "That could be a problem, because what I have planned will definitely take longer than thirty minutes."
Skye felt her cheeks heat up in a blush, but she moved her arm to glare up at him. "You sound incredibly sure of yourself. Just how much experience do you have with these types of situations?"
He gave her a bone-melting smile. "Absolutely none. That's why I said I'd need some time. I'll probably screw things up."
"Yeah right!" she snorted. "I've seen you at the clubs before with a girl on each arm. Are you seriously telling me that you never did anything with them?"
He shook his head. "Nope! I never touched them. I told you before, I was waiting for you."
She groaned. "Well this sucks! Here I am in bed with a sexy, good-looking man, and I'm going to have to leave so I can make curfew in time. Somebody somewhere must hate me."
"I might have an idea," he told her. "But it depends on how devious you want to be."
She arched a brow. "I'm listening."
"Do your parents check on you during the night," he asked.
Her head shook back and forth on the pillow. "No. In fact, I started sleeping with my bedroom door locked a little over a year ago because Nick started coming in there at night and playing pranks on me."
He grinned like a boy on Christmas morning. "Excellent!"
She eyed him warily. "Okay, you're starting to worry me just a little. What are you concocting inside that head of yours? Whatever it is, you can probably forget it. The palace is like a fortress, so there's no way that I can sneak out. And I'm not sneaking you into my room either. My brother's room is right next to mine, and my parents are just across the hall. That scenario has all the makings of a full blown disaster."
"Are you finished?" he asked calmly when she finally ran out of breath. When she nodded he continued, "Now, let me tell you what I was thinking. You go home, say your goodnights, and go to your room like you always do. Once you're sure you're in the clear, I'll teleport in and bring us back here. That is, if this is what you want."
She shot him a look like she thought he was crazy. "Are you kidding? What are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road." Then she grinned. "You really are evil sometimes."
The wicked grin he gave her made goose bumps break out across her skin and her toes curl up inside her shoes. "Baby, you ain't seen nothing yet. I don't know exactly how things will go, but I believe this is going to be a night that neither one of us will ever forget."
Neo Queen Serenity rolled onto her back and stared up at the crystal ceiling above her. Falling asleep was usually not an issue for her, but sometimes she suffered from insomnia when she was dealing with a lot of stress. And boy was she stressed right now.
She had no idea what the next day would bring. True, she had already lived through these events once in her life, but she also knew from experience that time could change in the blink of an eye. The first time, Discord had been defeated and the Earth had finally been freed from the threat that he posed. But there were no guarantees that things would turn out the same way this time around. All it would take is one tiny slip, and time could change drastically. People who had lived before could die. And by involving their past selves they ran the risk of altering history as well as the future.
But it was a risk that everyone was willing to take. Discord had to be defeated in order to protect their world. They all knew the risks involved, and they were willing to face them. They were the protectors of Earth, and they would defend it until their last breaths if they had to.
The mattress next to her moved as Endymion rolled over toward her. One of his arms snaked out and wrapped around her waist instinctively as his head settled on the pillow right above her shoulder. And then he let out a soft snore.
Serenity covered her mouth as a giggle bubbled up in her throat. It didn't matter how many years over the millennia that she was with this man, she still found him to be absolutely adorable when he slept. Reaching up, she flicked his stubborn hair away from his eyes in a familiar gesture that dated back to the Silver Millennium.
"Well, at least one of us is getting some sleep?" she whispered.
She wasn't really all that surprised that her king was snoozing soundly while she was wide awake. She knew that he was just as worried about the upcoming events as she was, but he dealt with stress in a different way than she did, and it rarely ever affected his sleep. Years of being a full time student while moonlighting as a superhero and then being a doctor who was always on call had taught him to take what sleep he could when he could get it.
But the sandman was definitely eluding her at the moment, and she knew that laying there would do nothing except drive her bonkers. So she carefully slipped from under Endymion's arm and out from between the sheets. She shivered when the cooler air brushed her bare skin.
"I knew I should have taken the time to put some clothes on before," she grumbled under her breath, but she knew that she didn't really mean it. She loved the fact that she and Endymion were still as hopelessly attracted to each other as they ever were after all the years that they had been together. To this day, he could still set her heart to pounding with nothing more than a look. She treasured every second that they spent together, and she hadn't wanted to ruin their earlier moment by scrambling around for clothes. She had been content to lie in his arms, listening as the beat of his heart had gradually slowed down and he had drifted off to sleep.
She ducked into her monstrous closet, where she rummaged around in some drawers until she uncovered her favorite pair of sleep boxers and one of her husbands t-shirts that she was always stealing from him. With her clothes in hand, she slipped into the bathroom.
A few minutes later she exited, fully clothed and sporting a freshly washed face. She'd twisted and looped her hair up to get it out of her way and then wrapped a scrunchie around it. Then, on silent feet, she left the bedroom.
She paused for a moment outside Rini, and then DJ's bedrooms doors. Despite the fact that she was going to let them walk right into danger's path the next day, she was ecstatic to finally have them back home. She'd missed them so much. No matter how old they got, they would always be her babies.
For a moment, she longed to enter those rooms and check on them like she had done when they were little. She'd lost count of the nights that she had rearranged tiny limbs and settled sleeping little heads back onto their pillows before tucking the covers around them. Sometimes she would linger by their bedsides for several minutes, just watching them sleep and marveling over the miracles they were. But they were grown now, and they didn't need mommy to tuck them in anymore.
Then a sly grin touched her lips. Besides, and she would never utter these words in front of her husband, she doubted very seriously that she would find either of her children in their rooms tonight.
Laughing quietly at that thought, she left her suite in search of a cup of chamomile tea. Maybe that would calm her nerves enough to help her sleep.
"Okay, what gives?" Jess asked. "You've been staring out into space for at least ten minutes. And quite honestly, it's starting to give me the creeps."
Serena blinked hard and turned to look at her. "What? Oh, it's nothing. I was just thinking about how different this city is compared to how it was the last time I was here." She glanced back out the transparent wall again. "It's so bright and alive this time. I just hope that we can keep it safe."
Jess sighed. "You and me both. It would really suck if all of our hard work and preparation was for nothing." Then she flipped though a few pages in the sketchbook she had on her knees until she found the drawing of Crystal Tokyo that she had done a couple of weeks before. "I guess my dreams were pretty accurate after all. This picture looks a lot like the real thing."
They were in the conservatory, sitting on the floor in front of the crystal wall that gave them a panoramic view of Crystal Tokyo and all of its twinkling lights. Just like the Tokyo of the past, it seemed that this city was always busy too.
Serena pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Physically, she was tired, but mentally, she was wound up so tightly that she felt like she was a spring about to snap. She had been unable to sleep, so she'd left Darien snoring in their bed a short while ago and slipped from the room. Surprisingly, she'd found Jess leaving her room as well, and together they had decided to see if they could find their way to the conservatory.
She wasn't sure if her memory was better than she gave it credit for, or if perhaps some other instinct had kicked in, but Serena had easily navigated the labyrinth of hallways and found the elevator with no problem. And while Jess had oohed and ahhed over the beauty of the rose garden, she had wandered over to stare out at the city.
She had so many thoughts running through her head that she wasn't sure where to begin to try and sort them out. She was worried about what the next day would bring, and about her friends and family. But on top of all of that, she couldn't get the conversation that she'd had with Mercury earlier out of her head.
***Flashback***
Mercury twisted a piece of her short blue hair around her finger as she studied the two identical blonde women before her. Her face was thoughtful, like she was thinking about the best way to phrase the answer to the question that she was just asked.
"Well, Serena," she finally began. "Let me see if I can lay this out in as simple a way as possible. Genetically, you are your parents' child, a Terran through and through. But since you were a Lunarian in your past life, and you were reincarnated by magical means, some of your Lunarian traits followed you into this life. It was also necessary for you to be marked as having a Lunarian heritage because, as you know, only members of the moon's royal family can successfully wield the Silver Crystal to the best of it's abilities."
"What do you mean that Lunarian traits followed me?" Serena asked hesitantly.
Mercury giggled. "Did it never seem strange to you that you were clumsier than the average person or that you could eat enough food for five grown men but remain as tiny as a toothpick?"
Serena shrugged. "I just figured I was an extremely clumsy person with a high metabolism."
Serenity snickered. "Think back, Serena, way back to the Silver Millennium. Now Lunarians were known for having healthy appetites. But do you remember what you were like during the times that you visited Earth? Remember how you would be hungry all of the time and so clumsy that you felt like you had to hold onto something or someone at all times to keep from falling?"
"I guess so," Serena murmured as her forehead creased in thought.
"It was because of the gravitational differences," Mercury told her. "The gravity here on Earth is twice as heavy as what we had on the moon during that time. Your body wasn't used to it, which caused your klutz attacks. And since your muscles had to work twice as hard in order to move, you burned up energy at a much faster rate, causing your increased appetite."
Serena shook her head. "But you just told me that I am completely Terran. So why would the gravity on Earth have affected me so much in this life?"
Mercury shrugged. "I have theories on that, but I'm not sure exactly which one is correct. The most plausible one that I have come up with is that it is because of the amount of energy that you exude. Keep in mind that even though you didn't receive the power of the Silver Crystal until the Rainbow Crystals were reunited, the dormant crystal was sealed inside of your body until then. And though the crystal was powerless until that point, it wasn't dead. I'm almost certain that it was probably using your energy to stay alive until it was complete once again. That would account for your voracious appetite."
"But it doesn't explain my clumsiness," Serena argued.
"In a way it does," Mercury contradicted. "I didn't know what to make of it at the time, but when I first awoke as Sailor Mercury I'd noticed that your energy levels seemed to always be fluctuating. Your system was constantly in a state of unbalance. I used to think that it was just because of the amount of energy you had to use as Sailor Moon, but now I believe that there is more to it. It would also explain how you could be running around like a rabid Chihuahua one minute and crash like the dead the next. Once the crystal was completed, your energy leveled out. But the Silver Crystal still relies on you to keep it going, so that's why your appetite and love of sleep are still around. But your clumsiness began disappearing after you got the crystal."
"I still have my moments," Serena grumbled.
"True," Mercury giggled. "Even my illustrious queen is known to klutz out on occasion. Some people are just naturally clumsy."
Serenity blew a raspberry at her and laughed.
"Anyway," Mercury continued after she rolled her eyes. "On to your original question about your transformation into the moon queen. Yes, you are already evolving; you probably have been your entire life. But I believe things got kick started from the moment you transformed into Sailor Moon for the first time. The Silver Crystal had created the first brooch that you received when Queen Serenity granted you your scout powers during your reincarnation, and it contained a small amount of the crystal's power. Later you learned to use the crystal itself in order to transform. But of all of the scouts, you received more power upgrades than anyone. As your power and knowledge of the crystal grew, you evolved into an even stronger sailor scout. These were all stepping stones that will lead you into becoming the Neo Queen."
"So you're saying that my whole life has been one long evolution?" Serena asked slowly.
"That one way to look at it," Mercury replied.
Serena chewed that over for a minute. "So does that mean that Eternal Sailor Moon is my last step before I become queen? I've had the same transformation for almost five years and it hasn't changed."
Mercury looked to her queen and raised an eyebrow.
Serenity sighed. "No, Serena. There is one more transformation for you before you become me. And it's not as far away as you think. In fact, you used that transformation once before, during the battle with Chaos."
Serena's thoughts flashed back to that horrible day, when she'd believed that she had lost everyone that she loved. She remembered calling forth the Silver Crystal and taking her princess form. Then Galaxia had been before her, slashing at her with a sword. And then she had been falling through the sky with her long, silken skirt flying around her and a sword falling with her. The possessed scout had been screaming at her to take up the sword and fight her back, but she had hesitated. Everything had seemed hopeless anyway. So what good would it have done for her to fight back?
Then, she had thought of Darien, her family, and her friends, and she could have sworn that she heard them all speaking to her, telling her to never give up, that there was always hope. She was the one that had to protect the planet.
Reenergized, she'd grabbed the sword and let all of her emotions pour through her, her heartache, her sorrow, her sadness, and her anger. The power of the Silver Crystal had raced through her body with an intensity that she had never felt before. It was wild and untamed. And when the wings had suddenly burst from her shoulder blades she had panicked, knowing that she had let the power of the crystal overtake her the way that Luna had always warned her not to.
There had been two battles taking place that day. She had faced Galaxia, and she had freed her from Chaos's grip, but she had also been fighting inside herself. The transformation had felt wrong to her. It was too powerful and she couldn't control it. And if she couldn't control it she knew that the Silver Crystal would suck her dry and kill her.
She'd finally forced the energy back and locked it away, but not before it had pushed her past the brink of exhaustion. The moments that followed Galaxia's departure were hardly more than a huge blur to her. She remembered feeling joy as her dearest friends were returned to her, and she remembered bursting into tears of disbelief and happiness when Darien had suddenly appeared. She'd thrown herself at him as she cried, but at some point she had collapsed in his arms from the drain on both her emotions and her energy.
She'd woken up in Darien's bed several hours later, thankfully wingless. A few of the scouts had commented on her angelic appearance, but the subject had been dropped when they realized that she didn't want to talk about it.
Life had moved on, but it had taken a toll on her. She'd tried to act upbeat in front of everyone, although she was sure that she hadn't completely fooled them, but it had taken her the better part of two weeks before she'd felt like her energy had returned to normal. That had been the worst energy drain that she had ever gone through, and it was a miracle that it hadn't killed her.
She looked at her future self in disbelief. "You mean I have to go through that again?"
The queen smiled at her gently. "I know it's a lot to take in, but it is necessary. Things are different now though. You were barely more than an emotionally distraught child the last time you unleashed that power. Now you are grown. You also have your complete memories of the past and you've perfected your control of the Silver Crystal. You can use that power now and be able to control it. I'm not saying that it will be easy. Heaven knows that even I have days when I would love to throw the Silver Crystal into the closest lake I can find. But this is your power, Serena. It is yours to use. Mother has even told you to embrace it."
Serena shook her head. "It's dangerous."
"Only if you allow it to be," Serenity responded. "You are the master of the crystal, not the other way around. As long as you remember that, the crystal cannot overpower you. It will do what you ask it to."
Serena still shook her head in denial.
Then Mercury sat back with her arms crossed. "The bottom line, Serena, is that if you ever hope to one day become queen so that you can save the Earth, you have got to come to terms with your power. Because without the true Princess Serenity, there will be no Neo Queen Serenity, and the planet will be doomed forever."
***End Flashback***
"You look whipped," Jess told her. "Maybe you should go on back to bed."
Serena arched a brow at her. "Look who's talking, raccoon eyes! If those circles of yours get any darker people are going to start accusing Andrew of domestic abuse. You look like somebody popped you good in both eyes."
"Ha! Ha!" Jess intoned dryly. "I'll probably crash soon. It's just that when I get worked up like this I have to wait until I wind down."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," Serena sighed. "I guess anything's better than laying in bed, listening to your man snore, huh?"
"Drew doesn't snore…at least not loudly," Jess protested. Then she giggled. "It's kinda cute in a way. He looks like such a little boy when he's sleeping. I have to stop myself from grabbing him up and squeezing him to death. But he never lets anything interfere with his sleep. He just lays down and he's out almost as soon as his head touches the pillow."
Serena smiled slyly. "That doesn't say much about your bedroom life, does it?"
"Serena!" Jess gasped. Then she laughed. "Well, I don't kiss and tell. But you know how Raye and Lita are always complaining that men get their fun and then roll over and go to sleep? I think there is a certain amount of truth to that."
Serena joined her laughter. "Well, Mina said it best. If a guy falls asleep after sex then that means that you did your part right. And if he did his part right everybody's happy. So who cares who is sleeping?"
"Sage words of wisdom from the love goddess," Jess replied in a mock solemn tone. Then she threw in a jab of her own. "So if you're here, and Darien's in bed asleep, does that mean that you two have already started christening the palace?"
Serena's eyes flared wide. "And you say I'm bad! I don't kiss and tell either!"
"Joking! I'm joking!" Jess choked out around a laugh. "I just had to get you back for that crack about my bedroom life. Believe me, I don't want to know what other couples do behind closed doors. I just wish someone would explain that to Mina."
"Isn't that the truth!" Serena snorted.
Just then, someone cleared their throat and said, "Ooh boy! Party crashing time!"
Serena and Jess both whipped their heads around to find Shadow and Serenity standing not too far away with conspiratorial grins on their faces.
"Do you ladies have room for two more?" Serenity asked, holding up a large thermos. "We brought refreshments."
Jess chuckled. "I guess great minds do think alike."
Serena beamed a smile at them. "The more the merrier."
Andrew rolled over, still half asleep, and reached across the bed for Jess, only to find the other side rumpled but empty. He opened his eyes and looked around the darkened, unfamiliar bedroom. "Jess?"
The bathroom door was open and the lights off, so he knew that she wasn't in there. That could only mean one thing; she was wandering around this massive palace somewhere.
"Damn insomnia!" he growled as he threw back the covers and reached for his discarded jeans on the floor and pulled them on. A quick search told him that his shirt had disappeared, but that was nothing unusual when Jess was around. He couldn't understand why she loved shopping for clothes so much when she spent so much time wearing the button down shirts and boxer shorts that she stole from him.
He clicked on the lamp and went over to his duffle bag and rummaged around until he found a plain white t-shirt and pulled it over his head. Then, barefooted, he padded out of the room to find his wayward fiancée.
'Thank god for soul bonds,' he thought as he stepped into the hall. A person could spend days searching the palace and still not find the person they were looking for. But luckily, he shared a connection with his future wife that would lead him straight to her.
The door to the room across the hall opened, and Darien stepped out, looking like he had just rolled out of bed and threw on the closest clothes as well, the same faded jeans and black button down that he had been wearing earlier. Only now the jeans were unbuttoned and only three buttons held the shirt closed. The future king was barefooted as well.
"Fancy running into you out here," Andrew drawled.
"Oh hey," Darien mumbled around a yawn. "I woke up and Serena was gone. I figured I better hunt her down and drag her back to bed. She needs some sleep before we face whatever's waiting for us tomorrow. Same with you?"
Andrew nodded. "Yep. Normally I turn a blind eye when Jess's insomnia kicks in, but if she doesn't get at least a few hours of sleep tonight she's going to regret it come morning. Which way are you headed?"
Darien pointed to the right. "I sense her this way. You?"
"Same direction," Andrew told him. "Who knows, maybe they're together."
The two men walked in silence through the twisted maze of hallways until they reached an elevator.
Darien grinned at his friend. "Looks like they are together. This goes up to the conservatory. That's the only place they can be."
"Well, well, what do we have here?" a sleep-roughened voice came from behind them.
The two men turned around as Endymion joined them, Drew just a few steps behind them. The two of them were in much the same state as their younger counterparts; barefooted and wearing wrinkled jeans and t-shirts.
Drew smothered a yawn behind his hand, and then grinned. "So they slipped out on you guys too, huh?"
"Appears that way," Darien replied. "But if Serena doesn't get some sleep she'll be a zombie come tomorrow. And that would not be good for our side."
Endymion chuckled. "Don't I know it. She's a very frightening lady when she's sleep deprived. Even the kids learned at a very early age how to read the signs, and they stay out of her way. They call her Mom-zilla during those times." Then he winced. "Don't tell her about that. She'd probably skin Rini and DJ alive and give them to Raye to broil."
The other three men laughed at his assessment of his wife. Then the elevator doors opened and the four of them stepped inside. They rode in companionable silence, all of them still slightly asleep, until the elevator stopped at the top and they got out.
Andrew, the only one of the group who hadn't seen the conservatory yet, took a moment to look around in surprise. "Impressive."
The sounds of feminine laughter carried to them, and they followed both it and the magnetic pull of the bonds they shared with their soul mates. Turning down the left path, they headed toward the rose garden. The giggles grew louder as they approached the clearing.
Just before the path opened into the clearing the four men pulled up short to watch the scene happening before them.
Serenity kept a blanket stashed there just for occasions like this, and all four women were currently laid out on it where it had been spread across a grassy spot on the ground. They were each red in the face from their laughter and they were all holding either their stomachs or sides.
"So," Serenity hiccupped around a giggle. "Mom, Hotaru, and I come into the house after shopping to find my brother, Mr. I Can Take Care Of A Baby For One Afternoon With No Problem, about a half step away from being declared insane and having to be locked away in the psycho ward. Somehow, he had managed to spill the powdered baby formula, and he was covered in it from head to toe. The worst part was that Kenny was screaming his head off because he had a wet diaper, and Sammy was running around trying to find some scissors."
"Why did he need scissors to change a diaper?" Serena managed to gasp.
"Because when he changed the diaper earlier, he used too much baby powder and it got on the sticky tabs and they wouldn't hold. So he'd used duct tape to hold the diaper together and then he couldn't get it undone!" Serenity howled.
Jess shrieked with laughter, rolling onto her side as she wrapped both arms around her middle. "Oh stop! If I laugh any more I swear I'll explode!"
Serena was crying she was laughing so hard. "Oh, you're kidding me, right? Sammy didn't really do that, did he?"
Serenity held a hand up in a V sign. "Sailor scouts' honor, he did! Needless to say, Hotaru didn't leave him alone with the baby for a while after that."
"That story never gets old," Shadow said as she wiped tears from her eyes. "At least I never had to worry about leaving Drew with the twins. He was a natural with them from the day they were born. He had a bit of a hard time handling both of them at once, but then again, so did I sometimes."
"Ix-nay! Ix-nay!" Serenity hissed at her friend. "Do you want to bring Trista crashing down on us for saying more than we should?"
The dark blonde woman snorted. "I'm not scared of Pluto. Tell her to bring it on." Then she yawned widely. "Wow! I think that tea did the trick. I could fall asleep right here. Did anyone think to bring some pillows?"
"Who needs pillows?" Jess mumbled, using her arm as a pillow as she tucked it under her head. "Somebody wake me up when Discord decides to show his ugly mug, okay."
Serena had her eyes closed, but she smiled as she murmured softly to the others, "I don't know if the rest of you are aware of this, but we're not alone anymore."
"Mm-hmm," her companions hummed back.
Serena was a bit surprised that all three of them had responded. That meant that all four of their soul mates were close by. But when the others remained quiet instead of busting their eavesdroppers, she followed their lead…at least until she sensed the tall male presence standing over her.
She cracked her eyes open and looked up into Darien's tired, but amused sapphire eyes. "Hi honey," she purred sleepily.
He crossed his arms as he looked down at her. "Hi yourself! Do you have any idea what time it is? You should have been asleep a while ago. We have a busy day tomorrow."
"I know," she yawned. "But I was still keyed up. I was just trying to unwind a little. I think I'm ready for bed now though."
He held a hand down to her and pulled her to her feet, placing an arm around her waist as she wobbled on her feet. Around them, similar conversations were taking place.
"Serena, you know that you need your sleep," Endymion was fussing. "You're going to have to use the Silver Crystal tomorrow. So your energy is going to have to be at it's best."
Serenity bowed her head at the chastising, but a tiny smile still played around her lips. "I know. But I couldn't sleep, so I thought that maybe some chamomile tea would help relax me. Besides, who could go to sleep with all the snoring you were doing?"
"You're one to talk, Little Miss Buzzsaw," Endymion teased back. "There have been many times that I thought the walls were going to come down and the ceiling fall in on us during some of your snooze-fests."
Shadow snorted, "Oh, please! I'm getting a stomachache just listening to you two being so sweet together. Serena, just drag the man off to bed already if you're going to continue to flirt with him and save me from having to hurl."
Endymion waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "It wouldn't be the first time she's dragged me to bed tonight."
"Darien!" Serenity screeched as began slapping at his shoulder.
Everybody else, except Serena, laughed at the king's joke. Instead she buried her burning red face in her hands and moaned, "Oh my god! He's turned into a depraved pervert!"
The arms around her waist tightened, and then Darien's voice was whispering in her ear, "Oh, come on! You know that you like my naughty side."
Jess was wobbling on her feet as she leaned against Andrew's shoulder. "Well, this has been real and all, but it's definitely crash time for me. I'm about to fall asleep standing up."
"Me too," Serenity sighed. "I guess our tea party is over, girls. Now we have to get ourselves rested up and ready to face tomorrow. And may the gods be on our side."
The city was burning in the distance. He could see the flames shooting high up into the afternoon sky and the thick plumes of smoke that hung like dark clouds, making it seem darker than it actually was.
His heart was in his throat, strangling him as it pounded wildly with fear. Most of his family and friends, people that he loved and cared deeply for, were in the city right now, and they needed help. People could be dying at this very moment, and he was just standing there.
Sensing that he wasn't alone, he turned around on the grassy knoll to face the others. Sailor Caloris was sitting on the ground, sobbing into her pulled up knees as Flame knelt next to her, hugging her tightly. Sailors Crescent Moon, Ishtar, and Callisto were huddled together in a group with their arms around each other, crying as they watched the destruction of their home.
But his eyes locked on the two who were standing closest to him, who were staring in disbelief with their wildly glowing gold and silver eyes.
"What do we do?" he yelled at them.
Katie shook her head. "I don't know."
"I don't think there is anything we can do now," DJ ground out.
"That's bullshit!" he exploded. "There has to be something we can do, dammit!"
The sky above them grew darker and there was a roar like a freight train. Then a loud voice boomed, "There is nothing that you can do, you incompetent little brats! The Earth shall be mine! Now die!"
Dark energy shot toward the three of them, buckling the ground beneath their feet. He heard the rest of their friends screaming, and he was grateful that they were far enough away to not get caught up in this attack. Then the ground opened up, and he, Katie, and DJ fell into darkness.
Alex thrashed awake, a scream building in the back of his throat. He was jerking around so much that he managed to flip himself completely out of bed where he landed in a heap of twisted limbs and sheets on the hard crystal floor.
"Damn!" he hissed as he hit his head just hard enough to be annoying. He rubbed the bump, muttering, "Just great! I get a few months free from the nightmares, and then the first night home they come back."
And when he felt the flare of two other terrified auras, he reached out to them mentally. 'Are you guys okay?'
'What the hell was that?' Katie's voice trembled through his mind.
'Both of you had the same dream?' DJ asked, trying to sound like his usually calm self. But there was a shakiness to his tone that belied his nerves.
'Dream, my ass! That was an effin nightmare!' Alex snapped, feeling like he was going to throw up.
Silver light flashed in the room as his sister appeared. Tears were pouring from her silver eyes as she looked frantically around the room. When she spotted her brother still sitting on the floor, her eyes faded back to their normal hazel and a sob tore from her throat as she threw herself at him. Her arms closed around him like channel locks as she hugged him tightly.
He hugged her back just as tightly, taking comfort from her presence and her familiar strawberry scent. It reminded him of the nights when they would have nightmares while they were growing up. Most of the time they had suffered in silence, but there had been nights when Katie would come to his room after a particularly bad nightmare and crawl into bed with him, seeking comfort from her twin. He had always played the strong one, consoling her and rubbing her back until she would finally stop crying and go back to sleep, but he had always been soothed by her as well.
Neither one of them flinched when the golden light that signaled DJ's arrival flared a few seconds later. Katie took a moment to give her brother one extra squeeze before she jumped up and launched herself at her boyfriend, burying her face in his neck.
It was a testament to how shaken up Alex was that he didn't voice a complaint about the fact that his sister was barely wearing any clothes, just a t-shirt and a pair of panties, and that she was plastered up against a guy who was only wearing a pair of cut off sweatpants. Normally, he would have never let that slide. But at the moment he didn't give a damn.
He got up off the floor and tossed the covers back onto the bed before stumbling into the adjoining bathroom to splash some cold water on his face. It helped clear his mind a bit and chased away the last of the nausea. He dried his face with a towel and then looked up in the mirror, his eyes immediately locking with the hazel ones behind him.
"Lex, are you okay?" Katie asked as she stepped toward him.
He turned around to face her and savored the feel of her cool hand as she reached up to push his shaggy brown bangs back from his face. "Yeah, I'll be alright. That nightmare just knocked me for a loop. It kinda came out of left field ya know, and I wasn't expecting it. How about you? Are you okay?"
At first she nodded slowly. Then she shook her head and sucked in a shuddering breath as she bit down hard on her bottom lip. Her eyes squeezed tightly shut as fresh tears sprang to life. After a moment, she blew out the breath she was holding and opened her shiny eyes as she gave him a wobbly smile. "I'll be okay. I just need a minute. Like you said, that nightmare was very unexpected."
She took his hand in hers and tugged him back into the bedroom where DJ had taken a seat on the couch in the little sitting area. She sat down next to him and pulled Alex down to sit on her other side. Then she reached for one of DJ's hands and sat there between them, holding on to both of them.
After a few minutes of silence, DJ spoke up. "It was a variation of the nightmare that we used to have. We were in the same time and the same place as before, but it was different."
Alex sighed and leaned his head against the back of the couch. "Yeah, this time Emma, Rini, Skye, Jayden, and Hannah were with us."
Katie shuddered. "And this time all three of us fell into the hole." Both guys squeezed her hands reassuringly.
"But why has it changed?" Alex wondered out loud.
"Maybe it's because we have changed," DJ murmured. When the other two looked at him questioningly, he elaborated. "Think about it. Were we this close before we went to the past? No, we weren't. We were trained to fight together, but we couldn't anticipate each other's moves the way we can now. And it's no longer just the three of us against Discord. We have an entire support team standing behind us. I think that's why the nightmare changed."
"But it still shows Crystal Tokyo being destroyed," Katie whispered. "That part hasn't changed."
"But that doesn't mean that it will come true," Alex told her. Now that the worst of the shock of the nightmare had worn off he was slipping back into his usual optimistic persona. "Things can change. Besides, have you taken a good look at how much firepower is going to be protecting this city? I feel sorry for anything that thinks about attacking it."
The corner of DJ's mouth twitched in a slight smirk. "You've got a point. There are going to be around forty people staying behind to protect this place. That's a lot better odds than what we're facing."
Katie rolled her eyes. "Oh, thanks! That makes me feel so much better when you put it like that."
He chuckled softly. "Well, at least we've got a small advantage over the others."
"You two are impossible," Katie groaned, but a laugh slipped out behind her words.
Alex stretched his arms over his head. "Nightmare or no nightmare, I need some more beauty sleep if I'm going to be my usual suave, handsome self when we greet Discord tomorrow."
"Suave?" Katie giggled.
"Handsome?" DJ mocked. "Listen pal, the only reason why the ladies ever paid any attention to you is because you were with me. You just can't argue with my rugged, good looking charm."
"And Mr. Ego has finally arrived," Katie grumbled. Then she arched a brow at her boyfriend. "Let's get one thing straight, sweetie. You better inform your fan club that you are officially off limits from now on. I'm I catch even one of those flaky, power hungry, wannabe princesses sniffing after you they'll wish that they'd never given you a second look. Discord will look like Santa Claus compared to what I'll do to them."
"Ooh, she told you!" Alex cackled gleefully.
But his laughter was cut short when his sister turned her head and pinned him with the same reproachful look. "The same goes for you too, brother dear. I'm sure Emma will agree with me when I say that we don't want any of those vipers putting moves on our men."
Then she giggled and leaned over to give both boys a kiss on the cheek. "Oh well! That's enough out of me I guess. Now I'm off to bed again. Catch ya later!" Her eyes flashed to silver, and then she disappeared.
DJ chuckled and shook his head. "Damn! She is hot when she gets jealous!"
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Alex cried, throwing his hands up. "Not in front of me! The last thing I want to hear is how hot you think my sister is. That's so disturbing that I can't even put it into words!"
A sly smirk appeared on the prince's face. "I can't help but speak the truth. Face it, buddy. I think your sister is the sexiest thing I've ever seen." Then he laughed and vanished before his friend could lunge at him.
"Moron!" Alex grumbled as he found himself alone again, but he couldn't help but grin. At least his best friend had great taste. But the important thing was that he made Katie happy.
But he did start to question whether DJ was as smart as he gave him credit for when he sensed that Katie was alone in her room across the hall while DJ was in his room at the opposite end of the wing. Most guys would take advantage of being able to teleport in and out of a girl's room without taking the chance of getting caught sneaking through the hallways.
"Amateurs," he snorted as he did a little teleporting of his own. He flashed out of his room in a burst of red-orange light and reappeared in another bedroom just a second later.
He barely glanced around the room that was decorated brightly in shades of pale orange and yellow. His attention was fully focused on the sleeping angel in the bed that was situated between two windows.
Emma lay on her back with one arm flung away from her body and the other one across her stomach. Her long golden hair splayed around her like a silken fan and her dark lashes cast shadows onto her cheeks.
The curtains in the room were partially open, so Alex had plenty of light to see by as he crept closer to the bed. He stood beside it for a moment, just drinking in the sight of the beautiful woman that he hoped to marry one day. She looked like she'd barely moved a muscle since he'd teleported her sleeping body to her room earlier after she had fallen asleep in his bed.
He'd been tempted at first to keep her with him all night. She usually slept with her door locked, so it wasn't like anyone would know if she was in her room or not. But since this was her first night home after being gone for so long, he thought that there might be a possibility of her parents coming to check on her, so he'd returned her to her bed when she had fallen asleep after they had made love earlier. He didn't think that Venus would have a problem with her daughter sharing the bed with the man that she loved, but Kunzite was another matter.
He knew that he shouldn't be here now. He should be in his own bed, trying to squeeze in a few more hours of sleep before morning came. But the truth was that he was afraid to get back into his lonely bed after having that nightmare. He was scared that if he laid down and closed his eyes that the horrifying visions would return. Being around Emma made him feel better, even if she was asleep. Just being near her soothed him.
He sank to his knees next to the bed and took her outstretched hand in his. He kissed the back of it lightly before turning it over and pressing her palm to his cheek. A feeling of calmness stole over him at the touch of her skin against his, and he sighed and closed his eyes.
Minutes passed as he sat there holding her hand to his face. He was beginning to feel drowsy when suddenly her fingers twitched in his and there was a shuffling sound as she shifted under the covers. He opened his eyes and looked toward her sleeping face.
Her head moved slowly from side to side on her pillow and her expression twisted up like she was having an unpleasant dream. A frown turned down lips as she murmured softly, "Alex…" And then her eyes blinked open.
She turned her head to fix those hazy pools of soft gray on him as a sleepy smile graced her lips. "Hey…" she barely breathed.
"Hey…" he whispered back with a gentle smile of his own.
She blinked her eyes a few times like she was trying to wake herself up a little more, and then that unhappy expression appeared on her face again. "What's wrong?"
He shook his head. "Nothing's wrong?"
One blonde eyebrow arched at him. "You can't fool me, Alex. You sitting on the floor beside my bed in the middle of the night, holding my hand like a lifeline is a dead giveaway that something is up. And even if you weren't, I can feel that you are upset. That's what woke me up."
He set her hand back down on her blanket. "It was just a dream. That's all."
"A nightmare?" she asked in concern.
He gave a jerky nod.
She sighed. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, I don't!" he snapped in a louder tone.
She threw her hands up in a placating gesture. "Okay! We won't talk about it."
Realizing that he was being an ass, he groaned and let his head drop to her mattress. "I'm sorry. I'm just on edge. I shouldn't take it out on you. Forgive me?"
She reached over and ran her fingers through his tousled brown hair. "You know I do. We're all stressed right now. You wouldn't be human if you weren't."
He raised his head to look at her. "You're too good to me sometimes. Did you know that?"
"Sometimes I think it's you who's too good to me," she replied with an impish grin. Then she raised the corner of her covers as she scooted over and patted the spot next to her.
"Your dad would kill me if he caught me here," he protested. "Remember that time he almost busted me when I was hiding in your closet?"
She grabbed his hand and tugged lightly. "The door is locked. If anybody comes knocking I'll wake you up and you can just teleport out of here. I promise."
When he still hesitated, she pushed her lower lip out in a pout. "Please. I don't like to think of you being alone."
He didn't particularly care for that thought either, so he got up from the floor and slid in between the covers beside her. A feeling of contentment washed over him as she snuggled up to his side, pillowing her head on his shoulder as she draped an arm across his waist.
"Night, baby. Sweet dreams," she murmured, already halfway back into dreamland.
He kissed the top of her head and wrapped both of his arms around her. "You too, sweetheart. I love you."
"Love you too," she breathed as sleep overcame her.
In less than two minutes, Alex fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep.
Helios sighed as he ran a hand over his face. There were some nights when being the high priest of dreams could be a huge pain in the butt, and this night was definitely one of the worst. He had spent hours now looking over all of the inhabitants of the Crystal Palace, trying to assist any of them that seemed to need help getting a good night's rest.
Some of them were doing fine on their own, but others were definitely suffering from the effects of anticipating the upcoming battle. The problem was that most of them were so stubborn that they resisted even his most powerful magic, making him have to work twice as hard in order to coax them into a slumber.
Jess, both the one from Tokyo of the past and her future counterpart, hadn't been a surprise for him to find awake. After all, he had been dealing with her insomnia for years now and he knew how to handle her. The best thing to do was to keep his magical persuasion pressing heavy on the back of her mind until she finally ran out of steam.
He'd handled Serena and Neo Queen Serenity in much the same way, but he had been a bit shocked at how long it had taken them to finally give up the fight. Sleeplessness was something that he was not used to having to deal with on a regular basis when it came to his future mother-in-law, and in the few times that he had been compelled to aid her in the past she had given in much more easily. That concerned him greatly because it meant that both the past and future forms of the queen must be extremely worried about the next day's events.
He had mentally darted around the palace all night, giving nudges here and there when needed and easing restlessness. But it seemed like that for every one person he got to go into a true sleep, at least three others would wake. Even now, as he felt Serena, Serenity, Jess, and Shadow slip into an even deeper state of sleep, other auras were stirring around the palace.
"I give up," he groaned into his hands. "I can't keep up with all of them. I just need to count myself lucky that most of them managed to get a few hours and leave it at that. The sun will be rising in a few hours anyway, so I'm just fighting a losing battle."
Surprisingly, the ones that he had expected the most trouble out of one this eve before the fight were the ones that had given him the least. Katie and DJ had gone to their beds and had fallen asleep with only minimal tossing and turning. Alex had stayed up a bit later than they had, but he had eventually gone to sleep as well. Their sleep had been only slightly restless, but he had taken care of that with no problem. At least until a short while ago.
Helios had been the high priest of Elysian for many centuries now, and he had always taken pride in being able to protect peoples' dreams and keep them safe. There was a realm that most humans never knew existed, a dark place where demons who liked to feed on human dreams dwelled.
His job, along with those of the dream priestesses of Elysian, was to police the dream world of the humans and protect their dreams from the succubus demons. Whenever one of the demons managed to crossover from their realm into the dream realm, Helios or one of the priestesses would go after it and drive it out. Because the longer that a demon was left to feed from dreams, the stronger it would become. And if a demon came across a particularly beautiful dream, it would suck it dry until the dreamer either went insane or worse, died.
But Helios had never let the power of his position go to his head. He knew that there were others who could make his dream power look like a cheap magician's trick, the Oneiroi.
The dream gods weren't as restricted as the other gods by Zeus's edict that forbade human contact since they only visited humans in their dreams and not in the physical world. But being the high and mighty gods that they were, they rarely ever bothered even coming into the dream world anymore unless they were extremely bored. In their eyes, humans were hardly more than toys to them.
In fact, until about seven years ago, Helios hadn't sensed any of the Oneiroi in dreams in well over a millennium. Then suddenly, one night, a rush of power had invaded the dream world, attacking the three young Trinity holders with horrific nightmares.
Now Helios knew that in addition to the good dreams, everyone had to have nightmares from time to time. Just like dark countered light and evil countered good, nightmares were essential to help keep the balance. But it had chafed him when the three children had continued to suffer on an almost nightly basis for weeks, then months, and then years afterward.
Normally, he would have stepped in and attempted to lessen the blow of such prolonged nightmares, like he had done for Jess while she was growing up when the memories of her past life had been struggling to get free. But he had sensed that the power being used to send the Trinity holders these dreams belonged to a god, so he had not interfered. He knew his place on the ladder of power, and a god outranked him by a lot.
Obviously, Selene, Gaia, and Apollo had recruited another god's help to send DJ, Katie, and Alex dreams of a possible outcome for the future in order to attempt to help motivate them into making sure it didn't happen. He seriously doubted that Morpheus, the leader of the Oneiroi and the actual god of dreams, would bother himself with sending troublesome dreams to three human teenagers, nor would Phantasos, who usually stuck to playing on peoples' fantasies when messing with their dreams.
Phobetor, on the other hand, was the god of nightmares, and a prime suspect for being the one that was sending the three nightmares of death and destruction. Like the other gods, he held a superior disdain for humans. But he also had a mischievous side that reveled in terrifying people in their dreams. And this would be right up his alley.
Regardless of whoever it was behind the dreams, Helios knew a god power when he felt it, so he hadn't interfered with the nightmares even though he had wanted to. He knew that to interfere with a god's plan would bring their wrath crashing down on him, so he just had to trust that the deities knew what they were doing by sending out these dreams.
The soft patter of almost noiseless footsteps had him looking up from where he was kneeling before the altar of the Elysian temple while he had been doing a patrol through the dream world in search of demonic parasites. He smiled softly, "I wasn't sure if I would see you here tonight or not."
Aurora returned his smile as she knelt beside him. "There was really no need for me to stay in the outside world. All is quiet for now, and as Jess loves to remind me, she is no longer a child. So I thought that it was a good time for me to return home for a spell."
Helios reached for her hand and squeezed it companionably. "You are always welcome here. You know that. If anything, you have more right to be here than I do. Not that I would ever bring up a lady's age, but you have been here far longer than I."
She slapped playfully at him. "Only by a few centuries, you youngling! I was still considered to be quite young when you were born." Then her expression turned serious. "I felt the power before. Are the kids okay?"
He nodded. "They had a pretty intense nightmare, but they all awoke and recovered after a few minutes. Alex has already fallen back asleep. DJ and Katie are still up and about, but they managed to get a few hours rest, so I'm going to let them deal with this on their own. It's obvious that the gods don't want me interfering."
"I know," Aurora sighed. "I just have a hard time understanding why they are choosing to torment those poor children now on the eve before they are going to face Discord. They have left them alone for the past few months. So why start again now?"
"Who knows why the gods think the way that they do?" he replied heavily. "The best conclusion that I can come up with is that they want to make sure that the Trinity holders are completely on guard and prepared for what might happen."
"Well they should leave them alone!" Aurora snapped. "Those poor darlings already have enough on their minds without the gods treating their heads like a playground. They have left them alone for months now. They shouldn't be messing with them again when they are so close to trying to end this."
"I understand where you are coming from," Helios agreed. "But I can also understand what the gods are trying to accomplish. The entire future is resting on the shoulders of those three teens, and they want to make sure that they are as prepared as they can possibly be. The nightmares might be harsh, but if it helps…" He put a weary hand over his eyes.
"You should get some rest," she told him sympathetically. "You worry about whether or not everyone else is getting sleep, yet you neglect your own. Go and try to get a few hours of rest. I'll keep an eye on the dream realm for now."
He removed his hand from his eyes to give her a wry look. "But you're not on duty."
She let out a snort. "I haven't officially been on duty for years now since I've been busy trying to keep my promise to Serenity and Althea to watch over their family. But if I can handle a bunch of stubborn kids, I bet I can kick a demon's butt if it comes slinking around in someone's dreams."
He chuckled. "I have no doubt that you could. You were always very talented when it came to sending demons packing."
"Then there is no reason why you can't go sleep while I take care of things here," she replied firmly. "Now get moving mister. This is going to be an emotionally trying day for all of us, and you're going to need to keep your wits about you."
"All right! All right! I'm going!" he grumbled good-naturedly. "Has anyone told you that you've gotten pushy in your old age?"
"Ha! Ha!" she said dryly, refusing to get riled by his ribbing. "As a matter of fact, I've heard similar mutters many times over the years. But if none of those have ever bothered me, then your taunts won't either. Go to bed, Helios."
He shook his head in amusement. "I'm going. But if anything stronger than a level 3 succubus demon comes along…"
"I'll be sure to summon you," she reassured him with a grin. "Being around Jess all of these years may have made me crazy, but even I am not crazy enough to take on a high level demon alone. Now quit yakking and get to bed!"
"Yes ma'am!" he chuckled as he gave her a mock salute. Then he teleported out of the temple and back to the Golden Palace.
He reappeared in the sitting room of his suite on the upper floor of the palace. Heaving a deep sigh, he pushed open one of the double doors to his bedroom and stepped inside.
His eyes flicked immediately to his bed, and he felt a little relief when he saw a slight lump under the covers and the long strands of soft pink hair trailing over the side of the mattress. Patrolling dreams took all of his concentration, so he hadn't been able to check in with Rini for a few hours.
He hadn't even been sure whether or not she would still be there or if she had returned home. They hadn't exactly parted on the best of terms earlier.
***Flashback***
"Rini," he said gently as he took her chin in his hand. "You keep taking what I say the wrong way. I just wish you would look at this from my point of view."
She jerked her chin out of his hand and then stomped a few steps away from him. "We've been over this already. I am not to hide here in Elysian during the fight and leave my brother and the others to deal with this on their own. They might need my help, and I'm going to be there for them."
He ran agitated fingers through his silvery-white hair. It was a gesture that he had picked up from his king and future father-in-law. He sat down on the edge of the fountain in the rose garden and propped his elbows on his knees.
Finally, he whispered, "I'm just trying to keep you safe."
Rini whirled around to look at him; her maroon eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "I know you are. And I love you for it. But I have to do this. My family, my home, my entire future depends on the outcome of this fight. I know that you think of me as being the crown princess of Crystal Tokyo, but I am a sailor scout as well. It's my job to protect the planet from its enemies."
He felt his temper begin to stir as he lunged to his feet to face her. "I see you as much more than just the crown princess, and I know that you are a warrior, but I also see you as the woman who will one day become my wife. What kind of man am I to just stand calmly aside and let the woman that he loves walk into a potentially life-threatening situation?"
Her eyes snapped as her anger began to simmer as well. "Well you've never seemed to have a problem with it before! In fact, I seem to remember a certain someone giving me a kiss and then sending me to face Nehellenia. You didn't seem too concerned then."
"Of course I was concerned!" he fired back. "But we were in a desperate situation. I just had to trust in the fact that Serena had the Silver Crystal and that Darien had just been reunited with the Golden Crystal. I had to believe that they would protect you because I knew that I couldn't."
She let out a derisive sounding laugh. "And what about the first time we faced Discord? You let me leave Elysian that day knowing what we were going up against, and you didn't make any attempts then to make me stay behind."
An irritated growl rumbled in his throat. "Once again, I knew that you would be well protected. Darien was with you and I believed in my heart that he would be able to free Serena from Discord. Jess had reclaimed her full power and Andrew was becoming powerful as well. You also had all of the scouts and generals with you; I knew that you would be safe. But this fight is different. You will be leaving the safety of the city and your parents to face Discord. It makes me uncomfortable."
"I'm not some pampered little girl that requires constant protection!" she suddenly screamed at him as she stomped her foot.
He arched a brow at her tantrum, feeling more anger bubble up inside of him. "Are you sure about that? You're acting pretty juvenile right now."
She stalked right up to him and poked him hard in the chest with a finger, her eyes glowing hotly as she sneered, "If I am such a helpless little girl that needs someone watching over her all of time and you are so concerned for my safety, then where were you all the times when I did need someone? Where were you when the Black Moon clan attacked my home and my parents were injured? I was scared and alone and forced to travel to the past by myself. Where were you when Wiseman captured me and twisted my mind around until I was only too happy to attack my own family? Where were you when Mistress 9 took my pure heart crystal and I almost died? Oh, that's right! I know where you were. You were here hiding in your own little world. You didn't reveal yourself to me until you needed my help with those Dead Moon Circus freaks! And even then you were secretive for months before you told me who you really were."
His temper burst and he grabbed her by the shoulders, giving her a firm shake as he yelled, "It wasn't like that at all! I always looked out for you…always! From the moment you were born I kept watch over you from afar. Believe me, I would have loved to have been by your side from the first day, but I knew that things had to happen in a certain way or time would be irrevocably changed. It killed me to have to stay away from you, but it was the way things had to be. But I promise you this, if there had ever been a time during the trials that you faced when I had been certain that things were going wrong and that you would die, I would have come to your aid and the timeline be damned! You are the single, most precious thing in my life, and I don't want to lose you!"
Rini stared up at him, looking like she was only seconds away from bursting into tears. But she clenched her jaw and ground out, "Let me go, Helios, before I have to make you!"
He realized then that he was still gripping her shoulders hard, possibly hard enough to leave bruises. He let her go quickly and took a step back, his emotions whirling uncontrollably inside him.
Knowing that they needed a little time apart so that they could both calm down before either of them said or did something that they would regret, he mumbled, "I need to get to work," and he teleported away.
***End Flashback***
It had been a cowardly move on his part to run away like that, but he knew that it was for the best. He and Rini didn't fight often, but when they did it tended to turn into an explosive situation. She was high-spirited, and it was one of the things that he loved most about her, but it also meant that she was hardheaded and stubborn. Not surprising considering who her parents were. Serenity and Endymion were both bull-headed at times, which had caused some heated arguments between them over the years.
Helios had always prided himself on being calm, cool, and collected. Not saying that he never got frustrated or irritated about things, because he did. But his years as a young boy, growing up in Elysian and training at his father's, the former head priest's, side had taught him how to direct his emotions to make them work for him in a positive way. He had been hot-tempered as a child, but over the centuries he had learned how to not let his feelings get the better of him. Whenever he was faced with something bothersome he took a deep breath and dealt with it calmly.
Rini, though, had always seemed to be the exception to that rule. Whenever she was around his emotions ran wild and free. It was as if something inside of him came unlocked when she was with him, and it reminded him that he was still alive. When he was with her he felt that he could truly be himself. Yes, they argued sometimes. But didn't every couple at some point?
He walked over to the side of the bed to take a peek at his sleeping princess. She was on her side with her back toward him, so he had to lean over her to see her face. Her eyes were closed and her cheeks were flushed with sleep. Her lips were slightly parted as soft, even breaths puffed past them. A quick mental check assured him that she was resting comfortably.
He couldn't help but grin though, when he saw that she had pulled his pillow to her and was hugging it snugly in her arms. That, and the fact that she was sleeping here in his bed instead of at home in her own, let him know that the time apart had been good for both of them and that she had calmed down as well.
Feeling relieved, he went into his bathroom and turned on the shower for the water to heat. He stripped off his robes while it did, and then stepped inside the glass stall and closed the door behind him. As the hot spray began raining down on him, a deep weariness spread throughout his body.
He leaned back against one of the cool glass walls and let his chin drop to his chest as his eyes fell closed. The stress from the past few months must finally be catching up to him. He didn't look much older than his early twenties, and most days he felt as young as he looked, but right now he felt the weight of every single one of his centuries pressing down on him.
"Face it, old man. You're not as young as you used to be," he muttered under his breath as he tried to muster the strength to push away from the wall and finish his shower. All he wanted to do was crawl into his bed and take Rini in his arms. That sounded like the closest thing to heaven to him at the moment, to lie back and have her softness pressed against his side. He particularly adored the way her fingers would move over his chest, even when she was asleep. He could picture it so clearly that he could actually feel them now.
It wasn't until he heard the huff of a low laugh that he realized that what he was feeling was real. His amber eyes popped open as his head jerked up to find a pair of deep maroon ones only inches from his. "Rini!"
His princess let out another small laugh. "Hi, honey. Tough night at the office?"
One of his hands came up to cover hers where it was tracing random patterns across the smooth skin of his chest. "I've had better. So what are you doing in here? I figured that you'd stay asleep for a while."
She tilted her head slightly at his words and actions. "I guess I must have sensed you come in. I woke up and heard the water running, so I thought I'd come and talk to you."
He slid from between her and the wall to step fully under the spraying water. A minute before he had been fantasizing about holding Rini's sleeping body close to him, but now that she was awake and looking at him with those inquisitive eyes of hers it brought back every detail of their earlier fight. And he felt like a bastard.
"What do you want to talk about?" he asked carefully as he reached for the shampoo.
"Umm…" she hummed, taken aback just a bit by the casualness of his voice. "I just wanted to make sure that you weren't still angry about before."
He focused on working the shampoo through his silvery hair. "I'm not angry."
"Are you sure?" A small undercurrent of hope threaded through her voice.
He closed his eyes and tilted his head back to rinse the suds away. "I'm sure."
Silence stretched between them for a minute while he finished rinsing his hair. Then, being careful to keep his eyes averted from her, he reached for the soap and a washcloth.
"I don't believe you," she finally said, her voice low and buzzing with emotion.
He blew out a heavy breath as he began to scrub down his body. "I'm sorry you feel that way, but it's the truth."
"Then why won't you even look at me?" she flung back angrily.
He raised his eyes to meet hers, but it only lasted for a few seconds before his gaze skittered guiltily away. "See, I look at you."
A low growl was all the warning he got before he found himself pushed back into the glass wall of the shower and pinned between it and the highly emotional woman in front of him.
"You know damn well what I mean!" she hissed as she placed a hand on the wall at either side of his head, trapping him in case he decided to bolt. The heat from her eyes seemed to sear straight though him.
"Look," she told him in a surprisingly steady voice. "I know I said a lot of horrible things to you earlier, and you have every right to be mad at me, but I want to clear the air between us. I can't stand the thought of you being angry at me."
He forced his eyes to remain locked with hers as he replied sincerely, "I'm not angry with you, Rini. Truly, I'm not. The only person I'm furious with right now is myself."
Her expression turned confused. "Why?"
His hands came up to rest lightly on her shoulders, sliding smoothly over her now wet skin. He looked miserable enough to cry as he whispered, "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
She pulled back just a couple of inches to get a better look at his face. "Huh? What are you talking about?"
He shook his head. "Don't try to downplay it in an attempt to make me feel better, my princess. I know what I did was atrocious. It's one thing to say words in anger, but to put my hands on you like that…"
"Whoa! Whoa!" Rini interrupted him. "What do you mean by that?"
His hands were now caressing the delicate skin of her upper arms and shoulders. "I grabbed you and shook you in a fit of anger. You would be well within your rights to tell your father what I did. And I would deserve whatever punishment that he decided to give me."
Rini gave her head a hard shake. "Hold up just a second. Are you seriously worried about what happened between us earlier?"
He nodded slowly. "I lost my temper and I shouldn't have. I was scared that I had hurt you. I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to see me again."
To his surprise, she began laughing. "I can't believe that you are all worked up over that. I'm not saying that I was happy at the time with you grabbing me like that, but I understand that you were upset. Besides, like I told you before, I'm not that fragile. I'm perfectly fine. See?" She held up her arm to show him the smooth, unblemished, and lightly tanned skin of her upper arm.
"There's not a bruise on me," she told him triumphantly. "So you need to quit kicking yourself over this. We both got mad and we both lost our tempers, but nobody was hurt. And you didn't hold me as hard as you thought you did anyway. So let's drop it, okay."
He heaved a sigh of relief that she wasn't threatening to leave him. "Okay."
Then her expression turned positively evil. "You just better count yourself lucky that I held onto my temper as much as I did, or you would have been out for the count buddy!"
"I believe you," he replied with a grin. "So are we okay?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Yeah, we're okay…as long as we stay away from the subject of you wanting me to stay here during the fight. That is definitely taboo."
He nodded in resignation. "I don't like it, but I won't mention it again."
She beamed a smile at him. "Good! Now, let's get your shower finished so we can go to bed. Turn around so I can wash your back for you."
Dutifully, Helios turned and presented his back for its scrubbing. But as Rini's slender hands moved the soapy washcloth over the expanse of pale skin, he felt himself becoming less and less tired.
When she was finished he turned so that the spray of water could wash the suds from him and reached for the cloth. "Now it's your turn. Since you washed my back, it's only fair that I return the favor."
She danced out of his reach with a laugh. "Oh no you don't! I already took a bath earlier in that swimming pool of a bathtub of yours. That's why I've been trying for the last several minutes to keep from getting my hair wet." She pointed to the messy knot of pink hair that was twisted up on top of her head. A few strands had escaped the pins to curl damply around her, but it was dry for the most part.
He shot her a mischievous grin. "So why did you climb in here with me if you didn't want to take a chance of getting your precious hair wet?"
She arched a brow at him. "You don't have to sound so smug. But if you really want to know, I figured cornering you in the shower was my best chance of getting to talk to you without you poofing off to get away from me. I'm sure you don't like the idea of teleporting around in the buff."
"It wouldn't be one of my favorite things to do," he agreed. "It was very strategic of you to trap me like this. I'm impressed."
"My parents didn't raise a dummy," she quipped back.
"Hmm…" he mused. "So it seems. But there is one fatal flaw in your plan, princess."
"And what would that be?" she asked, completely unconcerned.
His amber eyes were practically glowing as he answered. "You revealed your weakness to me, and now I know exactly how to exploit it to gain the upper hand."
"What…" Rini began, but she broke off with a squeak when Helios's hand wrapped around her wrist and tugged her to him, and right under the spraying water where she was instantly soaked.
"Hey!" she sputtered as she tried to blink the water out of her eyes. "What's the big idea? Do you know how long it takes me to get this mop of mine to dry?"
"I'll dry it for you," Helios told her as he pulled her body tightly against his. Then he growled in a husky voice, "Now I have you exactly where I want you."
He turned them around so that she was now the one pinned between him and the wall. Then his lips found hers, cutting off her protests.
Needless to say that they didn't leave the shower until the hot water ran out and the chill forced them to seek the warmth of the bed.
"What a night," DJ grumbled as he walked into his bedroom from his adjoining bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and rubbing his wet hair with a towel. His nerves had been so rattled after the earlier nightmare that he had decided to indulge in a long, hot shower once he had returned to his room. And it had worked wonders.
He tossed the towel over a chair as he passed by it and fell across his bed, reaching for his TV remote so that he could do a little channel surfing. He knew that trying to get some more sleep would be the logical thing to do, but he just wasn't feeling it. Besides, he didn't want to chance having another nightmare. One was definitely enough for one night.
After a few minutes, he clicked the TV off and tossed the remote aside in a huff. He had gone through all the channels, and there were a lot, but there wasn't a single thing on worth watching unless you were into crappily-made movies, boring sitcom re-runs, or infomercials. But that seemed to be all that was available during the extreme early morning hours.
He briefly considered getting up to put in a movie, but he quickly shelved that idea as well. He knew what he wanted, and that was to be with his girlfriend, who was currently in a room at the end of the wing. Katie was still awake. He could sense her. And he could pop in there in just a couple of seconds. But he wasn't sure if that was such a good idea.
Katie had been uncharacteristically quiet and slightly detached ever since earlier in the evening when their parents had given them the news about their college opportunities. He knew that she was upset at prospect of them being separated, and he had tried to talk to her about it, but she had cut him off with a sad little smile and had asked him to not speak about it until after the fight was over. Not wanting to upset her anymore than she already was, he had respected her wishes.
But now he felt like she was withdrawing from him, and it was driving him crazy. After they had retired to their respective rooms, alone, he had teleported into hers, thinking that they could finally have some time to be alone together. But after a few minutes of strained conversation and a couple of brief kisses, she had announced that she was tired and wanted to go to bed. She had also made it perfectly clear that she meant to go to bed alone, so he'd left her.
After returning to his own room, he'd laid in bed for a while as he'd tried to un-jumble the confusing thoughts in his head. He knew that wanting to be alone was one of Katie's coping mechanisms when she had something heavy on her mind, and he could respect that, but he couldn't help but feel that a wedge was being driven between them. And it scared him.
He'd felt a bit better when he had gone to her after their shared nightmare and she had flung herself willingly into his arms. Despite his own rattled nerves, it had been nice to hold and comfort her, at least for a few minutes. He had been tempted to go after her when she'd left Alex's room, but she had still been giving off a distant vibe, so he'd left her alone.
Now he couldn't help but wonder if he was doing the right thing by leaving her alone with her thoughts. Sometime in the coming hours they would be going into the toughest fight of their lives, and they couldn't afford to have any tension between them.
"Just get up off of your ass and go to her, Shields!" he snarled to himself. "Smooth things over with her. Don't talk about anything depressing. Just tell her how much you love her and make her smile again. You can't let her pull away like this. Be a man!"
Deciding that was his best course of action, he jumped up from the bed. He was going to go to Katie and do everything within his power to make her feel better. And he wouldn't let her push him away this time. He was going to stick with her whether she wanted him to or not.
He strode to his closet and was reaching for a shirt when he suddenly sensed Katie's silver aura flare brightly and then change location. But she didn't go far, and he grinned when he tracked where she had teleported to. It was a much better place for them to have this little confrontation anyway. There wouldn't be anyone around to disturb if any yelling was involved.
He pulled on a black button down shirt and quickly buttoned it most of the way up. He debated for all of one second about socks and shoes before deciding against it. He wasn't going for a hike or anything. Then he summoned Gaia's power and teleported after his girlfriend.
When the golden light around him had faded he looked around to see that he had appeared exactly where he'd thought he would. A small lamp burning on a table dimly lit the foyer of the Furuhata's home, but he didn't need its light. He had spent almost as much time in this house as he had in the palace while he was growing up, and he could find his way through it with his eyes closed.
Soft piano music was coming from the room to his right, so he drifted quietly toward to doorway. The curtains in the room had been pushed open wide, allowing the waning moonlight to brighten the room just a bit and making it very easy for him to see the girl sitting at the piano.
Katie's face was calm and her expression was slightly dazed, just like it always was whenever she escaped into her musical world. But her hazel eyes were clear and beautiful as she lifted them to meet his and a tiny smile quirked her lips. And although she was looking at him, her fingers continued to move over the keys like they had a mind of their own, and she never missed a single note.
Since she didn't seem resentful of his intrusion into her space, he wandered further into the room. He came to a stop when he was near her and leaned slightly against the side of the piano as he watched her play. Neither of them spoke for fear of shattering the moment.
A few minutes later the song came to an end and her fingers fell still. "I haven't played my piano in so long," she finally said in a voice that was barely more than a whisper. "Not since the day of your parents' anniversary party when I practiced for my performance. After what happened to me, I used to come down here at night and sit here for hours, but I could never make myself touch the keys. It's nice to not have that angst hanging over my head anymore."
His mouth turned up in his familiar, lopsided grin. "You should be proud of yourself and all the progress that you've made. I know I am. And it is nice to hear this piano making music again. You know, when I was younger and over here spending the night with Alex, I used to sit up at the top of the stairs and listen to you practice. I always liked it."
She let out a light snort. "Yeah, right! This coming from the guy whose MP3 player is full of nothing but rock music and dance club hits."
He chuckled deeply. "I'm no music expert, but I can appreciate the classics."
She rolled her eyes at him. "So what brings you here in the middle of the night?"
"I could ask you the same thing," he countered back.
She arched a brow at him. "Uh, this is my house. I live here. Anyway, I just popped in to pick up something and got sidetracked by the piano. What's your excuse?"
He shrugged. "No excuse. I was just following you. I thought we needed to talk, and this seemed like a good time."
She seemed to cringe on the piano bench. "I don't want to talk about anything having to do with college right now."
"And neither do I," he quickly reassured her. "I just wanted to make sure that you were okay…and that we are okay. You've seemed so…distant since earlier, and I don't like it. I understand that you have a lot on your mind, but I kept having this horrible feeling, like we were starting to drift apart or something. It scared me."
"Oh no!" she gasped. "DJ, no! I never meant to make you feel like that. I know I've been a little out of it tonight, but I was just trying to get everything lined out in my own head." She flung her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. "I love you."
He buried his fingers in her pale, silky hair. "I love you too. So we're good, right?"
She twisted her head to look up at him; her cheek pressed against his abs. "Yeah, we're good. I know we've got some shit ahead of us to work out, but nothing in this world would ever make me stop loving you.
"You are so beautiful in the moonlight," he murmured as he trailed his fingertips down her cheek. "Sometimes it makes my heart hurt just to look at you."
She pushed slightly away with a light laugh. "That sounded suspiciously like a pick up line. Are you trying to come on to me?"
He shot her a cheeky grin. "I have to admit that seduction might play a small part in my motives."
"You are positively awful!" she giggled as she got up from the bench to walk to the door. When she reached the doorway she turned to give him a coy look over her shoulder. "Just let me run up and grab what I came for, and then we'll see what happens next. There are still a few hours until dawn."
DJ was beaming like a Cheshire cat as he trailed her up the stairs to the second floor. They passed by the door to Alex's room near the head of the stairs on the left, and then the door to Jess and Andrew's room on the right, before approaching another door on the left. DJ paused at the threshold while Katie darted inside.
He watched as she eagerly went to the closet and rummaged through it before pulling out a pair of jeans. As she turned and approached her dresser she smiled sweetly at him. "You can come in if you want to."
He still hesitated. "Um, no offense, but you promised me years ago that if I ever set foot inside your room that you would deliver me a long, slow, and painful death."
She burst into peals of laughter. "That was a long time ago, and we were mortal enemies then. None of that matters now. Come on in."
He stepped over the invisible line and into what, up until now anyway, had been forbidden territory and looked around. Over the years he had caught glimpses into her bedroom, so he was familiar with the soft, soothing color scheme, but this was the first time that he'd had a chance to really take it all in. The only other time that he had been here had been the night that she had been kidnapped, and it was mostly a blur in his head. Besides, her choice of décor had been the last thing on his mind that night.
"This room suits you," he told her as looked around. She had clicked on a small lamp draped with a light blue scarf when she had entered, and it cast a cool glow around the room, making the silver glitter in the off-white paint of the walls shimmer softly. "Yep, this room is definitely you. I feel like I've landed on the moon."
Katie looked up from where she was digging in her bottom drawer to smile at him. "Well that was the whole point in decorating it like this. My mom's memories of living on the moon can be a little fuzzy sometimes, but your mom helped us out a lot when we were picking out things. I wasn't too sure about all of the pastels at first, but I've learned to love them. They're soothing."
"It does put off a calming vibe," he agreed.
She stood up and set the items she was holding on top of the dresser. "This room has always been my sanctuary, a place where I can come to think. I used to run home every time we would have a fight and come straight here. I was afraid that the tranquility would be broken after I was attacked, but this place is like magic. Dawn had already cleaned things up by the time I got home, and I never had a problem coming back in here."
Then she walked over to her bed and sat down on the patchwork quilt made up of many different colored pastel blocks. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad or anything, but you have no idea how many nights I laid in this bed, upset over some of the things that you used to say to me. Some nights I would be so mad at you that I wanted to rip you to shreds. And some nights I wouldn't be able to do anything but cry."
"Ouch!" he muttered as he took a seat next to her. "Well that sure was laying all of the cards out on the table. But I wasn't the only one to blame for our fights. You used to say some pretty mean things yourself."
She flapped a hand at him. "Oh, I know I did. I wasn't trying to make myself sound like a perfect angel or anything."
He grabbed her waving hand and held it tightly in his. "You're an angel to me." Then he leaned over to kiss her lightly.
"Shouldn't we be getting back to the palace?" she mumbled against his lips a few seconds later.
He shrugged. "I'm in no hurry. Like you pointed out before, we have a few hours until sunrise. Anyway, we have one thing here that we wouldn't have at the palace."
"What's that?" she asked, sounding a little dazed.
"Privacy," he told her, pressing another kiss to her lips. Then he moved to her neck as he continued in a low, smoky tone, "Complete and utter privacy. How often do we get that?"
Katie began to grin as she felt her naughty side beginning to stir, and she was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she was still wearing nothing but the over-sized t-shirt that she had been sleeping in with only a pair of bikini panties beneath it. She hadn't thought to put on any clothes before she'd teleported to her family home, because she hadn't expected to run into anyone. Now she extremely glad for the oversight.
She turned her head slightly to meet DJ's lips with hers as his traveled back up her neck and along her jaw. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down with her as she lay back across her childhood bed.
The last two remaining youma sank to their knees before the swirling dark cloud who was Discord and bowed their heads.
"My lord," the one on the right said in a hesitantly shaking voice. "We have done as you have requested and used every bit of the energy that we collected and the growth serums that we took from the labs to enhance your army. They now only wait for your commands."
A low, eerie laugh rumbled from the bodiless Discord. "You have done well, much better than I would have expected from mere youma."
"We exist only to serve you, my lord," the youma on the left declared subserviently.
"And you will be rewarded for your loyalty," Discord replied in a voice that was as smooth as silk. "But for now I have another task for you."
Both youma looked up, startled. "My lord?"
"Today will be a day that will live on in infamy for the rest of eternity," he told them. "For centuries my children and I have attempted on many occasions to destroy this abominable hunk of dirt and rock, and every time we have been thwarted by either those damn gods or that meddlesome hodge-podge royal family. But today that will all end. We will crush them. We will annihilate them. And when they all lay dead I will reduce this planet to nothing more than rubble."
"But what of the Galactic Trinity, my lord?" the first youma asked anxiously. "Do you not fear that they will use it in an attempt to destroy you?"
"Forgive her, great one! She speaks out of turn," the second youma jumped in, anticipating the evil entity's wrath.
"I refuse to quiver in fear of three mere children!" Discord roared, making the cavern around them shake with the force of his anger. Startled snarls and howls echoed up from deeper in the cavern where his new, suped-up army was housed at the disturbance.
After a moment he regained control of himself. "My pets, I will not cower because of a threat from the gods. When last I checked the Trinity bearers were still bumbling around in the past with no idea of how to achieve their true mission. They may not even be in this time. But if they do appear I will handle them. I beat the Galactic Trinity once before, and I can do it again. Humans are so feeble and fragile, and they are easy to manipulate. Surely you have seen that during your escapades out into the world to collect energy."
"Of course," the first youma replied while the second one nodded vigorously. "What more do you require of us?"
The dark cloud swirled faster for a moment before settling down once more. "I have other agendas besides just defeating my enemies. I expect to run into resistance when we attack Crystal Tokyo, but their defenses will not be able to hold forever. Eventually we will find a way in. And when we do, I want you two to go in and look for some things for me. You can assume a completely human appearance, and in the confusion that will be going on I doubt anyone will be able to tell that your auras read differently than those of the other citizens of the city."
The youmas exchanged a questioning look between each other before the one on the left, a blonde with pale blue skin and needle sharp fingernails asked, "What things will be looking for, my lord?"
"They're not things as much as they are people," Discord explained carefully. "There are three people that I wish for you to find. I want the traitors, Jack and Sasha, located. They betrayed me in the most heinous way imaginable and they must pay for turning their backs on me after all of the years I spent taking care of them. If you come across them, you have my permission to kill them in the most painful way that you can manage."
"Is that all?" the other youma, this one with the same bluish skin but with brown hair and glowing yellow eyes inquired.
Two bright red eyes glared out of the cloud at them. "No. That is not all. The most important part of your mission is to locate that stubborn little half-blood brat, Princess Melody. You two do know who I am talking about, don't you?"
The blonde nodded. "You mean Jessica Furuhata, the artist who is also Sailor Shadow and the mother of the sun and moon Trinity bearers."
"Yes," Discord hissed. "That troublesome girl has given me the slip for the last time, and she has something that I want, so you will find her for me. Do not approach her or do anything to draw attention to yourselves. Just when you find her, transmit your location to me and I will handle her myself. She and I have some unfinished business between us. Now, go inform my army to prepare themselves. We move on Crystal Tokyo today."
"Yes, my lord," both youma murmured as they rose to their feet and quickly fled his presence.
"It won't be long now," the entity said to himself as he retreated back into a corner of the cavern and sank down low to the floor in a restful mode. He was trying to conserve as much energy as he could for the upcoming battle. He had no idea if he would be confronted with the Trinity bearers or not, but even if he didn't, he would need all of his strength to face down the others, especially Melody. He was tired of playing this cat and mouse game with her. It was time to end it once and for all.
"I'm coming for you, princess," he crooned softly. "I'm coming for all of you. I will get the Celestial Crystal from you this time, and after more than twenty centuries, I will succeed in blowing this planet to bits. I will not let anyone or anything stop me."
Elysian – The Far Future
"Okay, I'm confused," Katie complained as she looked back and forth between her brother and her, um, boyfriend…fiancé…father of her child…she wasn't sure exactly what to call him anymore. She finally settled on the title of lover and left it at that.
"You're confused? How the hell do you think we feel?" Alex growled at her.
After the shocking incident the night before where all three of their eyes had changed colors, they had finally given up the speculations and gone to bed. But after tossing and turning and only getting a few hours of restless sleep, they had given up and gotten up once more and convened in the training room of the Elysian palace.
A snarl rumbled in DJ's throat. "You don't have to bite her head of, Lex! She was just voicing her thoughts."
The brunette man's expression turned a bit sheepish. "Sorry, Kat."
She waved him off. "It's cool." Then she walked in a circle around them, looking them up and down. "This is so weird though. I haven't seen the two of you like this in a long time. I wasn't sure it was even possible anymore."
On a whim, the two men had decided to try and transform into their alter egos, something that hadn't been done in fifteen years. Alex, of course, had been dead all of that time. And DJ and Katie had both tried several times after that disastrous night, but they had been unable to, presumably because of the fact that their energies had been so mixed up.
But now, in the early morning hours, after all of these years, it had finally worked. As soon as they had summoned their transformation powers they had changed from their sweatpants and t-shirts to their all-black ensembles.
"Wow!" Katie murmured as she drank in the sight of her prince. "I'd almost forgotten how good you make that tux look."
In full Phantom mode, he swept his dark cape around him and waggled his eyebrows behind his black mask. "Do you like what you see?"
"Oh yeah," she sighed as she ran her hand up his arm. "I like it a lot."
"Ahem! No ooey-gooey-ness in front of me, please," Alex, now as Phoenix, complained sharply. "It's enough to turn my stomach."
Katie laughed and stuck her tongue out at him. "Like I'm not subjected to watching you and Emma being all lovey-dovey together."
"Did I hear someone say my name?" Emma trilled as she swept through the door, holding a tray…a tray that wobbled precariously as her eyes landed on Alex.
"Oh! It worked!" she squeaked as she quickly set the tray on a nearby table.
Phoenix was at her side in a heartbeat, his long black duster flaring around him as he swooped her up into his arms. "Of course it worked! Did you ever doubt me?"
She giggled as she pulled the dark sunglasses down his nose to see his eyes. "I never doubted you for a moment. Hmm…your eyes are still blue."
"So are DJ's," Katie mused. "That's what has me so confused. Earlier our eyes changed to look just like our past selves' do when they use the god powers. But we never got those powers and we don't have the bracelets. And the gods are supposed to take their powers back after Discord is defeated. So why would our eyes change?"
Phantom raked a hand through his black hair. "I don't have a clue. I've tried coming up with a probable explanation, but I've got nothing."
"I want to try transforming," Katie announced suddenly.
Phantom's gloved hand covered hers as she reached for the diamond pendant around her neck. It was one of the few things that she'd held onto all of these years. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Kat. You're pregnant."
She jerked away from him. "Exactly! I'm pregnant, not an invalid, and I wish you would stop treating me like I have some deadly disease. All of the other scouts said that they transformed when they were pregnant, and nothing happened to them."
"She has a point," Emma piped up. "My mom even fought in a skirmish when she was pregnant with me…about gave my dad a heart attack in the process. But she said that when she was Sailor Venus it was like there was an extra layer of protection around me, so she knew I wouldn't get hurt."
"I'm doing this. And don't you dare try to stop me," Katie said firmly as she grasped her necklace firmly in her hand. "Eclipse Power!"
Elation filled her as the power she hadn't felt in so long swept through her veins. As soon as the silver sparks around her faded she looked down at herself to see the familiar black-skirted fuku and silver bow on her chest. Her hand flew up to touch the tiara on her forehead as she twisted around in her black, high heeled, knee high boots to see the other silver bow at the back of her waist.
"Yes!" she cried, jumping up and down. "Yes! Yes! YES! It worked! I'm a sailor scout again!"
"And you're making me nervous with all of that jumping around," Phantom scolded her lightly.
"Don't be such a worry-wart," she replied flippantly. But she did stop jumping. Then her eyes widened and her hands flew to her stomach. "Oh! You liked that, didn't you, baby? Momma did too."
She beamed a brilliant smile at the others. "Allie's happy. I can feel it. She's happy because I'm happy."
Phantom was beside her in an instant. "You can sense that from her?"
"I…I guess I can," Eclipse stammered. "It makes sense, I suppose. She is physically connected to me." Then she threw her arms around his neck. "Oh, you were right, DJ! She is a very special little girl."
"All babies are special," Emma giggled. "Each one is a miracle. I just adore children. If I could, I would have a dozen of my own."
"You seriously overestimate me, woman!" Phoenix groaned.
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Okay, I'll try to stay conservative and plan for six. But things can happen."
"I still can't believe this," Eclipse gushed, still riding the high of her returned transformation powers. "Now I wish there was a guardian or sentinel here for me to whale on. I have all of this pent up energy inside me. I know! Let's go out for a run."
Phantom's arms tightened around her. "Whoa! Hold on for just a minute. I know that you're excited about being able to transform again, but let's not push things, okay. I know that you're not an invalid, and you're made out of pretty strong stuff, but the fact is that you are pregnant with my child and I worry about you."
She pushed angrily against his chest. "I know my body, and I know what my limits are. Why can't you give me some credit?"
Suddenly, her eyes flared bright silver, and in a flash of light she disappeared from arms.
"What the hell!" Phoenix yelled. "Where did she go?"
Before anyone had a chance to regain enough of their senses to move, the door that led outside opened and in stepped a shocked looking, hazel-eyed Sailor Eclipse.
"I teleported," she whispered softly, as if to herself. "I was thinking about how much I wanted to be outside, and then suddenly I was there. How did I do that?"
"Are you okay?" Phantom demanded, almost angrily, as he stomped over to her.
She nodded immediately. "Yeah, I'm fine. But I'm more confused than ever. I shouldn't be able to teleport by myself. Do you think the gods made a mistake and accidentally left some of their powers inside our past selves, and now we're feeling the effect of that."
He shook his head. "I don't know. I guess it's possible. But maybe it's…"
"What?" she questioned when he fell quiet.
He swallowed hard. "Maybe that wasn't you. Maybe it was the baby."
She thought about that for a moment. "No. It didn't feel like it came from her. Besides, that wouldn't explain why your and Alex's eyes changed color last night."
"She's right," Phoenix agreed eagerly. "Let's test it and see if I can teleport too." He took off his sunglasses and walked to the end of the long room. "Emma, you go stand at the other end."
Emma shrugged, looking mildly excited as she did as he asked.
He looked at her for a long moment with an expression of intense concentration on his face. Just when it seemed like nothing was going to happen, his eyes began burning a smoldering red-orange. Then there was a flash of reddish light, and he was suddenly standing next to Emma.
"Holy crap!" Emma exclaimed in surprise as his arms quickly snaked around her waist.
"Wicked!" he crowed in triumph.
The experiment was repeated again, this time with Phantom and Eclipse standing at the opposite ends of the room.
"I think I need to sit down," Eclipse murmured after he had successfully teleported to her side, and she let her transformation fade. Both guys followed her lead.
Emma took her hand and led her to the table where she had left the tray. "Come over here. I brought some coffee, decaf of course for you, and some of the leftover muffins that Rini made yesterday. That should help calm your nerves."
"At this point I think my nerves are beyond calming," Katie grumbled as she sat down on one of the chairs around the small table and accepted the cup Emma gave her. She took a sip of the hot brew, scrunching her nose up at the taste. She didn't care what anyone said, decaf coffee tasted different than regular. But she didn't hesitate tearing into the muffins. She knew that sooner or later she was going to have to cut back on her sugar intake, but for now she needed the comfort.
There were only two chairs, so DJ and Alex sat on the floor next to the women so they could talk.
DJ took a sip of his coffee and sighed. "This could use a shot of something stronger. I wonder if Helios has any liquor stashed around here somewhere."
Katie glared at him as she swallowed a bite of muffin. "No drinking! You spent over a decade in an alcohol-induced haze. I won't have you falling back into old habits."
"I just meant that a tiny nip of something to take the edge off would be nice. That's all," he placated her. "Believe me, I have no intentions of getting drunk. I have no reason to anymore now that some aspects of my life are back on track."
"The point is," Alex broke in, "that we have some really wacky shit going on right now. All of a sudden we can go anywhere we want with just a thought. Something pretty major must happen in the past."
"Maybe it has something to do with the timeline trying to settle down," Emma mused. "Do you think Helios would have any ideas?"
Katie snorted. "He wouldn't say anything even if he did. That man can keep a secret like it's nobody's business, even from Rini. I wish I could get in touch with Trista though. I bet I could get her to tell me what's going on."
DJ nudged her knee with his shoulder. "Yeah. Too bad she's busy in the past. But I think her being there is more important than her being here right now. We're just going to have to wait and see how things play out."
They all fell silent for a moment until Alex grumbled, "Well doesn't this suck!"
The Time Plane
As always, the mist surrounding the time gate was thick and unmoving. But it swirled just a tiny bit as a fissure went through the air and Sailor Pluto appeared. She sighed softly as she went over to look into the time stream to reassure herself that things were moving along as smoothly as possible for now.
She looked to the future and saw with great relief that the main timeline was growing more and more clear as the showdown with Discord drew near. In fact, she had just returned from a quick visit to the future where things had settled down for the most part, at least for now.
In fact, things were going so great that she had almost been tempted to pop into the Elysian of the future and return her refugees to their proper time, but only almost. There was still enough margin of error for things to go wrong, so she decided that it would be best to leave them there for just a while longer until the outcome of the battle had been decided. She was sure that by now they were probably experiencing some of the effects trickling down the timeline, but they would just have to deal with it for now. If things went as well as she was hoping they would, everything would be set right soon.
She had done everything that she possibly could to help ensure that Discord would finally be defeated once and for all. She'd even traveled to the future to take out a bit of extra insurance in case it was needed, and right now all of the signs were pointing to yes, it would be needed. All she could do now was wait and see what happened.
There were still a couple of hours until sunrise, and she was feeling slightly disjointed and at loose ends. Her visit into the future had helped bolster her faith that the coming day would work out in their favor and there were no problems in the past that needed her attention at the moment, so for one of the few times in her long existence, she had nothing to do.
She could always go to Mount Olympus and visit with her grandfather, but after a second thought she axed that idea. With the battle with Discord now only hours away, she was sure that Selene, Gaia, and Apollo were probably near the end of their rope. If they found out that she was there she knew that they would probably bombarded her with questions and suggestions for the upcoming fight. And to be honest, she would like to escape that subject for just a little while.
But there was somewhere else that she would rather be anyway, and without a moment's hesitation she pulled her aura in and concentrated in order to flash herself out of the time plane.
She shivered as she rematerialized in the brisk night air and powered down to her civilian form. She was still amazed at how cool the nights could be up in the mountains, even in May. But she pushed the chill from her mind and focused on the house a short distance away.
The house was built in a log cabin style with a wide front porch and steps leading up to it. It was an unheard of hour to be dropping in for a visit, but she felt encouraged when she saw lights shining through some of the windows.
Quick as a wink, she was across the grass, up the steps, and knocking lightly on the door. She held her breath as she heard heavy footsteps approaching.
Then the door was flung open as a deep voice growled, "Damn it, Anya! For the last time…" Evan's words died off when he saw who was standing on his porch.
"Sorry," he muttered after a moment. "I thought you were my sister, coming to bug me again. She's been more irritating than usual tonight."
"Is this a bad time?" she asked, barely above a whisper. "I know it's practically the middle of the night, but when I saw your lights were on…"
"No, no, it's fine. Come in," he told her as he stepped aside to allow her into his home. He closed the door behind her and then turned toward the kitchen. "I was beginning to wonder if you even remembered where I lived," he shot over his shoulder.
After a flabbergasted moment, she trailed after him. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"
He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. "Nothing. I didn't mean anything by it."
Now she wasn't known as a person that had a temper, but she felt it beginning to simmer now. She put her hands on her hips and gave him a glare. "Well obviously you meant something. You wouldn't have said it otherwise. And I want to know what."
He twisted the top viciously off the bottle and chugged down half of it before he returned her glare with one of his own. "You really want to know? Fine! When you asked me to go along with your plan to not let anyone know how close we've become until after the visitors from the past go home, I agreed with it. I didn't like it, but I respected your wishes. I stood at the back of that conference room at the palace tonight and listened to everyone make plans, and I barely even looked at you so that nobody would guess our secret. It killed me inside, but I did it for you. I thought for sure that you would call me or drop by once you had the chance, but I heard nothing. I've been going crazy for hours now."
Some of her anger sputtered and died at his words, but not quite all of it. She managed to choke out, "Oh my god! Are you pouting because you haven't heard from me?"
"Hell no!" he yelled, throwing his now empty bottle toward the garbage can and missing. Then his expression turned rueful. "Okay, maybe I'm pouting just a little bit. I was feeling lonely after the night we shared together last night and I wanted you here with me."
He looked like such a sad, large, overgrown boy that it killed the rest of her bad temper. She even grinned as she sauntered toward him. "I'm sorry. I guess I should have taken a moment to call you earlier, but I didn't think that my business would take as long as it did. I've been out of this time, and I only just got back a few minutes ago. I came straight here."
"Is everything okay?" he asked with genuine concern.
"As okay as it can be at the moment. Only time will tell," she told him as she went up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck.
He chuckled at her words. "So am I forgiven for being an ass?"
She tilted her head back to look at him. "Hmm, perhaps. Maybe there is a way for you to make it up to me."
His look turned curious. "What did you have in mind?"
She pressed a kiss to his lips before whispering in his ear, "I haven't really seen much of your bedroom yet."
Whoosh! Desire flared in his golden eyes, turning them into molten pools. But his voice was still hesitant as he asked, "Are you sure about this? I know we haven't known each other for very long, and I don't want you to regret it later."
"I haven't made love to anyone in centuries," she purred in what she hoped was a seductive tone. "I haven't even been interested in anyone in that way, until I met you. I've never been more sure about anything in my life."
He swept her up into his arms, bridal style, and kissed her senseless for several long seconds before pulling back slightly to tell her, "Then hold on tightly, my Setsuna. Later today we may have to go into battle, but the next few hours will belong to us alone."
Then he carried her to the bedroom and kicked the door shut behind them.
A/N Dum, dum dum! And the stage is set for the final battle to begin. All of our little heroes better enjoy the last few hours of peace, because it's all about to head south pretty quickly after this. I know some of you are probably scratching your heads in wonder about what's going on with DJ, Katie, and Alex in the future. All I can say is bear with me. It will make sense in the end. At least I hope it will. Believe it or not, there is a method to my madness…most of the time anyway. Please be the dears that I know you are and drop me a review to let me know what you think. It doesn't have to be long, just a word or two to express your thoughts. I'll catch you guys next time. Be safe everyone! Later! Lots of love and hugs!
~Sere~