IV

"…I believe I speak for us all when I say it is our pleasure in our role as your subjects and followers to guide you throughout this time. It will be hard work for every one of us, but we shall endeavor to prepare you for the day you accept the throne and truly become Her Royal Majesty of the Moon. Please mark this evening, your debut, as the confirmation of our continued pledge of loyalty."

Serena, from her place beside Prince Diamond on stage, took a deep breath as the attention of the congregation steadied itself on her. Being debuted to the Moon's noblemen and women was like a dream. It was hard to believe that until recently, she had just been a regular girl looking at the palace on her way to town. It had been just a place that seemed to be so much further than a boat ride away, but now, here she was.

Her forehead tingled. It was something it had done since almost her first night in the Moon Palace.

Staring out into the sea of their beautiful, pale, and expectant faces, she thought about her parents back in Juuban, how they had let her go to with kisses and promises to write; and she thought about other things that she would be leaving behind in her former, ordinary life.

She smiled. "Thank you. Thank you all."

She bowed and the applause for her rose.

Serenity's Reincarnation was in the courtyard adjacent to his quarters. She sat on the single brick bench, her long pigtails gathered in her lap. Her fingers played with the hem of her short and plain white dress.

This was the first time Endymion had truly seen her without the elders and their usual guards surrounding her. In fact, it was the first time he had seen her at all since her formal debut to the Moon royals. But, then again, it was not as though he had endeavored to be within such short proximity of her. He had been made more than aware that he was outside of the bubble of fascination the others, the Moon elite, had for her.

Her now permanent residency behind the palace walls had brought a spark of life to the usual ebb and flow of activity. The prince could hardly remember the last time so much attention had been placed upon one person, let alone one that could be considered an outsider. The first few days of her arrival were not only marked by her debut, but by other things: tours of both the palace's lush grounds and opulent interior; the royal baker's presentation of tiny cakes and pastries and candies for her to try; and hours spent in her private quarters—Serenity's old rooms—as the palace's seamstress and designers vied for her attention and exclusivity with numerous racks of clothes, shoes, and jewelry. The excited whispers he overheard from the servers who normally deigned to whisper out of earshot when bringing his meals only confirmed what he knew were the royals' thoughts about the girl and her similarities to their long-lost princess, regardless if they were real or imagined: how her fascination with seemingly simple things like the grand ballroom's walls was like the princess' own childlike curiosity; how she seemed to have inherited the princess' sweet tooth and liking of the bakers' pastries.

Artemis and Luna liked her. On top of the other duties the latter undertook in tending to the elders, she had been assigned as the girl's main au pair, and so spent time with her during meals. However, despite the added responsibility of babysitting—yet another thing he felt Luna was more than overqualified to perform—the dark-haired woman seemed to glorify in the ease that came from being around the girl: apparently, spending meals with her was the least stressful part of the day. She even mentioned how remarkable it was that Serenity's Reincarnation was so particularly fascinated with her view of the channel and bridge from Serenity's drawing room. Artemis' time with her during their etiquette lessons was, in his own words, "a little more stressful," but he remained undaunted and cognizant to the girl's needs for instruction. He found the challenge in trying to make things like decorum practices seem interesting to a teenager, and delight when realizing she seemed taken with his company and lessons. Much of his time formerly spent with the white-haired man that revolved around discussions of Parliament and its politics now consisted of these tales.

No—Endymion did not understand this magnetism she evoked. And yet, he had gone to the debut and watched from afar as the girl dazzled them all with her presence, the long, satin cream-colored dress she wore, and the "crowns" of orange roses that framed the buns atop her head. Heartfelt laughter had filled his ears that night as they curtsied upon being introduced to her and marveled at her appearance. He watched the way she walked and spoke and ate from the rainbow-array of desserts. He was unsure of how he had felt about their shared fascination towards her, as if she were a toy or automaton. It felt very…familiar.

And here she was now, so close to him.

He purposely scraped the bottom of his loafer against the brick walkway as he ventured into the space. His space. But, he quickly realized that Serenity's beloved doppleganger, oft spoken of to and around him, was not the same girl he was meeting face-to-face.

Despite the things he had overheard as of late about her smile, she looked completely desolate. Her eyes were brimming with tears. The look on her face told him she did not know of him; that she was unsure if he had come to take her back to the palace and have her face the people she wanted to be away from the moment. Either way, she began to scramble to stand.

"No, no," he heard himself saying. His hand raised to give her pause, "You do not have to leave if you are unprepared to do so."

Hesitantly, she sat down once more.

He himself did not debate whether to stay or leave. He settled down on the bench as well, about a foot away from her. His attention focused on the center of the courtyard and his thoughts of the koi fish swimming inside the large fountain before them as per usual. How they remained undisturbed by things occurring outside of their separate little worlds. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and loosened the cuffs, folding back his sleeves to get more comfortable. A sniffle punctuated the sounds of splashing in the fountain's water. There was yelling from far off; clearly the lack of her expected presence to wherever had been noticed by the guards by now, but if she realized they were looking for her, she made no move to notice or to make her whereabouts known. And none ventured towards his area.

She suddenly lifted her head up as if needing to break the silence existing between them. "I'm sorry about coming over here. I don't mean to bother you." She looked around her. "…I don't even know how I found this place."

His blue eyes remained focused on the sight of Earth peeking over the ground's back wall. "It is quite alright."

Relative silence once more as she gazed at the ground. More sniffling and wiping away of tears.

He looked over at her and found that he was unable to be silent much longer. "…Is there something wrong?"

She took a deep, shaky breath and shook her head. "I'm just tired. I just came from my lesson with Aglecta, and it just…left me a little frustrated."

Ah. He had heard of these lessons and the elder's staunch demand to teach them from Diamond. Apparently, his least favorite elder of all believed that the girl's materialization in the both the sense of her physical presence as well as her display of power during the night of the Coronation Announcement was a trace of the Silver Millennium Crystal's power. And in thinking along that particular vein, she was now intent on seeing if the girl was a needed clue towards finding the crystal itself. She could not be moved to think otherwise and insisted that it was necessary to see if any power existed in her at all. According to his friend, harnessing the crystal's power was a lesson that Serenity would have eventually undertaken had she and the queen had both lived. It was for that reason alone that the other elders did not dare dissuade her.

Endymion could only imagine these administered teachings. Ninety minutes of Aglecta holding counsel in the private meeting room where the coronation portraits of Queens Selene and Serenity and a posthumous painting of the princess hung, the legendary crystal hovering in each woman's cupped hands. He was remembering one of the elder's criticisms of the young girl that a server had overheard in passing by the meeting room during one such lesson: a tirade over an emerald-green dress the girl had worn, and how it was insulting to see that she did not follow the penchant of the women of the royal family to wear white, the royal color of the Moon. Some absurd nonsense.

"I just don't get why she seems to hate me." The girl said suddenly, shaking her head. "I'm following her directions. I'm opening my palm," the hand in her lap did indeed open and fingers extended to all corners, "and concentrating, but nothing comes, and she…" That same hand wiped at another tear that fell from her eyes. Endymion could not ignore her long, dark eyelashes, how they fanned out the same way Serenity's did.

Of course, the girl now knew of this…coincidence too.

Again, he spoke. "Aglecta is intimidating—intentionally so. It is not to test your strength or fortitude, and no one will be able to provide an explanation for her temperament. Not the other elders, or servers, or even Diamond."

"I know…but," she licked her lips for a moment before saying, "I started crying." She shook her head, as if ashamed of herself. "I told myself I wasn't going to, that it wouldn't help, but she wouldn't…I just couldn't hold them in… She wasn't moved."

"…It is best to find a way to not take her criticism to heart."

Her brows furrowed, upsetting the mark on her forehead ever so slightly. "How could I do that?"

He considered the question. "…Well, for one thing," he said, again focusing on the sight of the fountain before them, "you could remind yourself that no matter how hard she tries not to, she looks like a vulture."

…Silence…

An abrupt sound punctuated the air: a snicker, one that grew into a giggle. "A vulture?" Laughter, one that grew stronger and louder. Brighter.

The prince's eyebrow rose. "It is true."

The girl seemed incapable of stopping herself. "A vulture!" It was as if it were the first time she had heard a joke in her life.

He turned to her and began to speak. "She prefers to wear feathers, as you have noticed." She faced him now and nodded. "She once wore an outfit that seemed to be made up of feathers: long feathers on the collar, sleeves, and on the train of her dress. It is not attire uncommon for the noblewomen of the Moon, especially during that time, but she honestly looked like a bird, and not a particularly attractive one…"

He was still in disbelief over the statement he had just heard. "What?"

Serenity's smile widened and she nodded, sure in her assessment. "Aglecta looks like an actual vulture tonight." She glanced up at him, mirthful if not impish in her expression. All her sudden worries about — completely forgotten. "Look for yourself."

Endymion did so. There, along the outskirts of the dance floor was the sour-faced Moon elder watching others around her in the air of dancing and joy. While the other elders continued to be predictably standoffish during their meetings with the queen and only had a few suggestions here and there, Aglecta had not failed to voice what was her disapproval with the terms of what his people called the Earth-Moon Alliance. She was a staunch isolationist. It was not as though he was unused to disagreement—many of his father's own advisers were against this idea of an alliance—but rather the manner in which she displayed it. He knew of her temperament, but he was now a witness to her near incapability to control her behavior and words, even in the presence of her ruler. She was honestly the most vocally dissident on the subject of the Moon lending its aide to the planet it revolved.

The young prince stared at the thin, long-limbed woman once more. The white, floor-length dress she had on was needlessly elaborate, with a semi-high collar and embroidered sleeves and skirt. But it was the long, brown-tipped feathers that ran along said collar, the bottom of her forearms, and the dress' train that grabbed his attention. And with her gray hair smoothed back the way it was…and her nose? It was clear that she had insisted on looking the way she did that night, like a…

Before he knew it, he was laughing loudly as well, ignoring the curious glances of onlookers who wanted to know the joke. The princess had joined in once more, and it was with difficulty that they finally stopped.

"I do not think it will ever be again possible to take her seriously during our talks."

The Moon princess grinned, and he noticed the pretty shade of pink spreading over the apples of her cheeks as he stared at her. "Good. I do not think you should be so afraid of a vulture that thinks herself a dove…"

He smiled at her, at how clever she and her words were. And, not for the first time that evening or at any other time since he had first laid eyes upon her, he wished he could kiss her…

The girl continued laughing, shaking her head in disbelief, her reasons for sadness forgotten.

The prince realized he was smiling as well.

"Here you are!"

Luna was standing at the entrance into the courtyard, her brown eyes shifting from him to the girl and back again. Endymion was familiar with that look of cloaked surprise, but if the raven-haired woman wanted to make a comment, she did not act upon it. Her focus zeroed in on the girl. "The guards that were to escort you panicked when they came upon an empty meeting room! And Artemis was also worried; you were to meet him after your lesson with Aglecta! We have searched just about everywhere, and here you are! If I had not heard you laughing—"

The girl sobered, realizing the severity of the situation Luna described. "Sorry. Aglecta dismissed me early because…she doesn't let guards stand outside the door. And when she left, I just thought it would be good to see things by my—" She suddenly closed her eyes, a look of pain on her face. Her fingertips pressed themselves on her forehead. "Myself."

The bit of anger Luna possessed immediately dissipated. She walked into the space and squatted in front of the girl, uncaring about her long skirt trailing on the brick-laid ground. "Did you just have another headache?" She asked quietly, motherly…

"Yeah." She drew in a quick, deep breath and her eyes opened. "Just now."

Luna looked at the girl for a moment before sighing. "…Artemis wanted to try something new with your etiquette lesson, but he will understand if he is unable do so because you do not feel well. You should rest."

The girl nodded and stood. "Okay."

It was time to go back to his world of isolation. He could feel the grin slowly fading from his face.

They both stood. "Thank you, Prince Endymion," Luna said with a deep bow towards him.

He placed his hand on his chest and bowed slightly towards them both. "Luna."

The girl made a sudden expression of surprise, and he realized he would never learn the reason behind it. She bowed toward him with a hand over her heart. "Thank you…Your Royal Highness. My name is Serena, and it was nice to meet you."

He watched as she was led away…

It all began with a cough in her mother's chest. A strong cough, thick with phlegm, that had begun during the daily afternoon walk through the rose garden.

Princess Serenity had been disappointed because their walks were her favorite part of the day, but not too greatly worried. The ruler of the Moon's power and dignified air was known among their allies throughout the Solar System, but it was known in the kingdom that her mother was not always as strong as she was now; that she had fallen sick many times as a child.

This particular cough had persisted for the rest of the day, but Serenity had not been worried until her mother, who always moved gracefully with purpose and never made a misstep Serenity could remember, accidentally knocked over her goblet of water during a coughing fit at dinner.

The princess pushed her chair back the moment the water splashed and cascaded over her dinner and into her lap. "Mama! Mama, are you okay?!" The queen's face had become pink; the sound that came from her mother's mouth seemed to be never ending. The princess looked about the room in a panic, at a sea of faces as worried as her own, but hidden behind poised hands and pristine cloth napkins. Her senshi, ever close by, were at their side immediately with Mercury directing the others, instructing Jupiter to straighten their fallen chairs and Venus to pour some water. She could only watch as her mother sipped from the cup forced into her hands. It was after several moments that she took deep breaths.

Her mother finally gave her the assurance she desired by cupping the side of her cheek, her thumb tracing its curve. "I am all right." She smiled tightly. "Do not worry so."

The princess' brow furrowed over what had transpired, at her mother's still strained expression and the warm, clammy feel of the hand on her face. "But, Mama…" Her words were cut off with the approach of another figure.

Diamond, dressed in a white suit with black trim and his favorite obsidian-diamond cufflinks, did not go through the practiced etiquette of bowing to the queen, but rather immediately addressed her directly. "Your Majesty, are you all right?"

"Yes, I am," her mother stood with his aid and Serenity watched his hand press into her side "but tired. Maybe I should retire for tonight."

"Mama, I—"

"I know you wish to accompany me, but please stay here for the moment. Be with the others for me. You can come to my quarters when tea and coffee are served." The queen turned to the senshi with a wan but playful smile. "Ladies, please make sure she does not look so worried for the duration of dinner."

With hands over their chests and bowed heads, Princess Serenity watched all them make their playful oath to her.

"Let me accompany you." Diamond said, moving his hand and offering her the crook of his arm. "I can have someone in the kitchens prepare you some tea upon my return."

"Yes," Queen Serenity agreed, "rosehip with honey, thank you." She turned back to her daughter's worried face and smiled. "Do not worry, my love. I will stay awake just for you." She carefully rested her hand in the crook of the younger nobleman's elbow and let herself be escorted out.

The queen's exodus from the banquet hall was punctuated by the respectful standing of the other royals as always. But Serena could hear their whispered, worried chatter speaking her thoughts.

A/N: Sorry for the wait. There was a bit of a complete rewrite/revision session with this chapter. R&R