Small Lady and Saturn found themselves back in Amaterasu's estate. Amaterasu paced back and forth, oblivious to the fact that she was in the same room as them.
"Where have you been?"she asked them.
"We don't remember."Saturn told her.
"We were so worried about you!"Diana told them.
"You don't remember, you don't remember."Amaterasu simply repeated. "Why? Why not? I don't understand."she kept pacing back and forth. "Queen Serenity-"she stopped, sensing the other presence. "No!"she exclaimed, using her own telepathy, to hold the other ones back.
Small Lady and Saturn knelt down, feeling a great headache coming on.
"I'm sorry. I had to."Amaterasu told them. "What was it, was it the name? Was it-"she decided not to mention it again. "I think I will leave you here tonight. You will not leave this room. There is no way out, except the door, and the door will be heavily guarded, and it leads to my own room, anyway. So, there will be absolutely no chance of you escaping without my noticing, and I will notice, even sleeping."
Amaterasu finally left the room.
"I'm glad she's gone. She was making me nervous, pacing up and down like that. Why do you think she was so scared?"asked Small Lady.
Saturn looked thoughtful.
"Maybe she was worried something might happen to us. But I thought that there was no danger here?"she said.
"Why are we being locked in, though?"
"I think it's so you wouldn't escape and get lost again!"Diana exclaimed. "We were all so worried! I made it back to this estate, because I figured out how to work the viewer, and I just used any combination. It got me to another estate, I told them, and they send me here. Just what got into you!"she demanded.
Diana never spoke harshly to either of them, but she couldn't help herself.
"I'm sorry."she apologized to them. "I should not have spoken harshly to either of you."
"You must have been scared, I guess."Saturn confirmed.
Diana nodded.
"But tell us what happened, Diana? We just ran off like that!"Small Lady sounded incredulous.
"You really weren't yourselves."she insisted.
"I think we'd better go to sleep, instead. I'm tired, anyway."said Saturn.
Small Lady agreed. Amaterasu, meanwhile, kept pacing back and forth in her bedroom. She'd read and heard about insomnia, and people who couldn't sleep nights due to stress. She'd always found it amusing and unbelievable that such things could people from sleeping. It was something that only happened in books, or perhaps on other planets. Of course, she could deal with stress, she was after all, the princess, and according to the fetologists, she was genetically designed to deal with stress, but none like this one. She thought she could distract herself with a bit of reading, but nothing seemed to grab her attention. Finally, she settled for reading what had been recovered from the other estate.
"Small Lady? Princess Saturn?"Diana asked.
Even though they had both slept peacefully, she could hear them moaning.
"I'd better get the lady."she said to herself, and ran towards Amaterasu's room.
"What's the matter?"Amaterasu put her needlework down, looking almost relieved to see her. "I couldn't sleep."she said to her.
Perhaps that was it felt like to want company. She sometimes wished she could speak to the domestic staff, say more than just give them orders.
"Neither can Small Lady and Princess Saturn."Diana told her.
"Why not?"
"They're having those nightmares again."she explained.
Amaterasu shook her head.
"They would be at their weakest sleeping. The Others would be trying to emerge now. They would be relaxed!"
She realized how little she knew about the workings of a person's mind, even with her telepathic powers. Someone entered the door, unannounced.
"Out."Amaterasu simply said.
"The privacy of the estate is about to be violated, Princess."
Amaterasu's head shot up.
"What?"
"They say they come from Earth."
"I don't think that the queen should come here!"Amaterasu told Diana. "It appears that the Others are…angered by her. It would be best to not let her near them."
The others disembarked the ship, Amaterasu met them in the front hall.
"I'm trying to keep them restrained, but it proves harder every minute. They keep getting stronger."she told them.
"Just how could this have happened?"Jadeite asked. "What can we do?"
"Well, one way would be, as they would be trapped in the same body, we could get rid of them."Amaterasu suggested. "Without a body, even the Others couldn't survive."
"But what about Small Lady and Saturn?"cried Jupiter.
Amaterasu looked confused.
"I just don't know what else to do!"she told them. "All I can do is restrain them. The energy for me is no problem, but they fight."
"Then what should we do?"Diana cried.
Amaterasu sat thinking.
"It's rather odd."she said. "I remember, when I was very young, a girl told me about someone just like that, only instead of two, with three. One was clearly dominating her. She was able to break free by witnessing the same event that caused the others to appear."
"Do you think that might work?"asked Zoicite.
Amaterasu simply shrugged.
"Well, Small Lady felt alone, and Saturn…I'm not sure, but she was very lonely as well. Small Lady was her only friend."
"So, we simply leave them alone?"asked Diana.
"No, that wouldn't do. It should be…close to despair. Almost like pain, but not really pain."
Everyone looked surprised at Amaterasu's statement.
"I always thought you would have no clue about such things. At least that's what you always said."
"I am a Solarian. Even though, no one would admit it, well, at least I, do feel lonesome at times. Perhaps while I am still restraining them, I can also pass some of my own…pain to them."
"We could give it a try."
"I can't believe it actually worked!"said Amaterasu. "I have erased it from their minds, so they won't remember even their stay here. I, thought it for the best."her image told them. "Although, I never thought I'd here myself say this, but I do miss having someone else around."
"I know. Being lonely is sad."Queen Serenity replied, nodding.
"I suppose that must have been why the Others were returning. And being present at the same place…"
Queen Serenity nodded.
"Yes, that is very sad. I always hoped that you would change your way of life."she said.
Amaterasu shrugged.
"It's simply the way things are."