IX
Serena woke up in her bedroom. Her bathrobe was still on, and from the way her hair fell over her right shoulder, the bun was completely undone. The window curtains were drawn tightly; the sound of heavy rainfall hitting the glass windows filled in the quiet of the room; and soft white light came through the uncovered windows of her balcony doors.
It was almost the night before had never happened.
Almost.
Her eyes stared out into the relative darkness.
She was still herself, even after everything had happened; part her wanted to only curl up in a ball under her covers and fall back asleep. She wanted her mom to come in and force her out of bed for school. But she also wasn't the same… The side of her that had existed since that morning months ago was different, but she couldn't think of the words to really describe how. The teen still felt the power of the Mare Serenitias' washing over her.
Eyes wide open, she saw scraps of the dream she had awoken from—what she knew without being told was a memory of the past. Luna and Artemis and the elders. And Queen Serenity. And Endymion…
"And Princess Serenity," she murmured softly to herself.
There was a quiet knock on her door.
Her fingertips, which had floated to her forehead without her realizing, fell to her lap. There hadn't been a headache where her crescent-moon mark was—just a sort of…concentrated tingling. "Come in…"
The doorknob turned and in the open doorway stood Luna with a tray with covered crème-colored porcelain dishes, cups, and a matching teapot half-balanced on her hip. She was wearing a honeysuckle-colored dress that made her pale skin luminescent, and it shimmered as the dark-haired woman moved quickly to close the door behind her. Serena neither saw nor heard any of the other handmaidens straightening things in her drawing room. "…Good morning."
Serena sat up. "Good morning."
The dishes rattled as the tray was placed down. Luna's steps to the windows were brisk; the bits of gold trim and the metals around her room gleamed in the soft light of the parted windows. Luna then walked over to her bed and pulled back the canopy. She stared at the girl in a way that reminded the teenager of her mother's own expressions sometimes. "…How are you feeling?"
The sixteen-year-old saw the dark circles under the woman's eyes and knew how she had ended back in her bedroom. Pieces of the last few hours came back to her: hushed, panicked, and worried voices; the feel of a bed that wasn't hers; and fingertips smoothing stray strands in her hair buns.
And then, like her sight had flickered, she saw beyond that: a thousand memories of Luna standing off to the side and behind Queen Serenity, her eyes shining with motherly expressions—joy, surprise, concern, love.
Serena blinked. "I'm…fine, just a little tired."
Luna sighed. "I have been worried since Artemis and Prince Endymion brought you back here early this morning. Barely able to sleep. Artemis told me you were fine, but still… They do not believe anyone was aware of your being away."
"…Thank you…"
"Well, I am so glad that you are well and awake now. …Sometimes the palace can be cold when it rains. I asked that oatmeal be your breakfast today." Her wan smile turned artificial. "When you're finished, I'll get you ready for your meeting with the elders."
The woman bowed and turned, but before Serena knew what she was doing, she found herself holding unto her arm. "Luna, please sit with me for a minute?"
Luna looked back at her, surprise on her face. "…Of course," She removed her shoes and gathered her dress' hem to crawl into bed and settle in the space the teenager created for her. Her head rested on Serena's shoulder without permission; her wavy, black hair fell across her dress' shimmering fabric and the younger girl's own silk bathrobe. A yawn escaped her lips.
They sat in silence and the rainfall outside continued. The smell of hot chocolate slowly permeated the air; it and Luna's perfume filled Serena's nostrils.
"Luna…thank you for everything you did to keep me safe. And thank you for when you stood up to the elders for me. I'm sorry I didn't do the same for you…" She fell silent for a moment before saying, "but I promise that I will be strong enough to do it the next time." And just like that, that feeling of change had grown within the teenager—as if she had finally begun doing something right.
A soft snore escaped Luna's lips.
Serena eventually slipped out of bed and, for the first time since being in the palace, got ready for the day by herself. Today was the day the elders would be drafting their response to Parliament and it was important that she be there. But somewhere during her routine—bathing; settling on a dress, long-sleeved with vertical stripes the colors of the rainbow; and eating her breakfast—she felt a pull in another direction. It wasn't something she could explain, but she couldn't shake that feeling. …She knew deep within in herself that it was there for a reason and important to see through.
The storm made everything seem quieter than usual. She took a path she knew avoided the suites where the other royals were still sleeping and had few handmaidens and fewer guards to witness her walking around. Eventually she came upon a solitary staircase with a slight coil that went up one flight and ended in a short, isolated hallway with wall paintings of archers, satyrs, and animals.
Her eyes saw their mirrored poses and gestures toward a pair of golden door handles. She knew exactly where she was.
Looking behind her to make sure she wasn't being followed, she half-tiptoed towards the door. Her hand trembled as she opened them wide enough to slide through.
The foyer of the queen's office wasn't like how she knew it used to be. The wallpaper was the same, silver-and-white wallpaper with its pattern of a butterfly stretching its wings, but the heavy curtains and lampshades were gone; light filtered through the windows unhindered. It was the same with the lamps that stood to one-side beside the tarp-covered leather chairs: their shades were missing, and the lightbulbs were bare. If it hadn't been for the smell of citrus-scented cleaners in the air, Serena would've thought it completely abandoned.
Her heart thumped in her chest as she reached the second set of doors and opened them.
She wasn't alone. "…Artemis?"
The man she knew as her etiquette instructor startled as he looked away from a large window. His looked scared for a moment, and the suit jacket he had been holding fell from his hand. He relaxed as he realized it was just her and bowed to her as always, but the surprised look in his green eyes was still there as he straightened up. "…My thoughts were you would either be in bed or in the company of the elders."
"I…decided not to go, and…ended up here."
He gave her a brotherly grin as he picked up his dropped garment. "I find the same thing often happens to me as well, especially on days like this. There's something comforting about this particular space." He stared at the space and then at her. "…You were never shown this room when your first arrived."
She shook her head.
"Well then," he mustered enthusiasm and made a sweeping gesture with his arm, "by all means—explore."
It was just like the foyer: packed boxes and lumps covered with tarp. Only, this time, it wasn't enough to hide the complete picture. She saw what was once there: the would-be curtains draped over the windows; the desk with stacks of books and letters and papers, vials of black ink and fountain pens, and the solitary vase that stood beside a ceramic bust of a deer's head and was always replaced with a different bouquet of white-colored flowers. Even though the walls stood bare, she knew they once showcased paintings and portraits, and that there had been large potted plants with huge leaves and long vines placed on top of the two untouched bookshelves that still stored thick leather-bound books and scrolls with yellowed edges. Serena imagined Her Majesty sitting behind the desk with a cup of tea in hand…and Artemis in one of the chairs across from her, dutifully reading to her a book's passage.
Her fingers were grazing her forehead. Serena's eyes traveled back where he stood now at the window and it was like she was really seeing him for the first time. "Artemis? …When I first came here to the palace, Luna told me you knew the Moon's politics better than anyone."
The white-haired man smiled at the mention of praise. "As always, Luna gives me more credit than I deserve," he joked. "But I have, in my own way, tried to follow the Moon's government closely."
"…Is it because of the work you used to do as the queen's scribe?"
His gaze became surprised and for a moment, he paused to stare at her. It was like he knew there was something new and different about her too. "…When were you told about that?"
"I, I wasn't…" She stammered the next thing she wanted to say: "Can I just…ask you a question?"
"…Of course."
"The letter about me being the princess—what do you think about it? As someone who knows about Parliament?"
"That is a very serious question… If I were to be honest with my thoughts," she nodded, "I understand their perspectives. Above all else, Parliament works on behalf of the people of the Moon, and that entails many different needs that change from group to group or person to person. You embody many different things to different people, but you yourself have been seldom seen since that night, and the people's curiosity grows more and more. After all, does your presence now mean that Parliament no longer exists?
"Their governing body cannot answer their inquiries, and that makes them seem weak. …So, despite the elders' consensus, the government's concern is not without merit."
Artemis looked up at her, his expression pensive and patient. "…But I do not think that is where your question is truly concerned. Or that that was the answer you were looking for."
Her head shook minutely.
Artemis walked over to the covered chairs before the desk and pulled off the tarp. He gestured to one seat for her and then sat in the other, gingerly setting his suit jacket down.
Despite the lessons about posture, the sixteen-year-old hunched over in her seat, hugging her arms and looking at her shoes peeking from underneath the hem of her dress. "I think that it's about…why Parliament felt that they needed to write it. I know that they're doing their job, and that it's important that I prove myself to them—and I want to. But why…do I feel, deep down, like it's not really about that?"
"…What do you think it is about?"
She thought about her dreams, the strange need she had had to find this room. The voice from last night saying,
"…You can no longer doubt your strength…"
echoed in her head, and the words seemed to fly out of her mouth: "It's about someone being afraid of what I can do."
He gave her another strange look. "Someone?"
She nodded and felt her forehead tingle once more. "Someone."
Neither of them spoke. The rain outside began its fall again.
"…The return of the princess has been something we have all hoped for. But now that you are here, your arrival is no longer an impossibility. You exist; you are now a catalyst for change. That means the end of many things for many people."
"What has it meant for you?"
"In a way, it has meant the end of waiting and wondering what would have been had the princess lived. You, of course, are not Princess Serenity, but there are certain things about you that favor her. You exhibit a fire I saw but a few times during her life, a need to do right by everyone; I remain convinced that she would have carried a needed strength to her role.
"But for you: I am sure that fire is something that the people closest to you are curious to witness how it will be harnessed and utilized. As I am."
She looked over at him. "What do you mean?"
He picked up his suit jacket and pulled out a stack of envelopes of different sizes and colors and a rolled up section of the newspaper, all bound with a thick rubber band. "My learning of government's happenings truly comes from picking up my favorite of the nationally-based newspapers delivered to the royal guard's front post. In my retrieval of it this morning, I happened to see this stack of letters reserved for you and a very interesting article in the paper, and I retrieved them just for you."
He handed them to her.
Her fingers flipped through them. Most were from her mom and dad, but there were some from Naru and her classmates, and even a few with the Game Center Crown logo.
The smile on her face was the widest it had been in a while. "Thank you."
Her etiquette teacher stood and with his hand over his heart, bowed to her once more. Without speaking another word, he walked over to the doors and slid them closed upon his exit.
She set her letters aside and grabbed at the newspaper. Her fingers unfolded what was a blown up picture of herself from her first birthday. She knew this one. It had been taken inside her old living room, from before her mom had redecorated it. She was being held by a younger, smiling version of her dad, and she was looking over her shoulder at someone or something off-camera. The bib she wore did nothing to keep her birthday dress, tulle and stripes with a glittery collar, clean and pink frosting coated the hand she had shoved in her mouth.
She stared at the tiny crown that sat askew on her head, and read the large-print words above it:
'Serena Tsukino: Our Princess, My Daughter'
The storm that had carried on throughout the day finally ended as twilight turned to night.
The knocks Endymion heeded revealed her to be standing on the other side, a stack of letters in hand.
For the first time all day, since he and Artemis had placed her back in her quarters and gone their separate ways, he felt true relief. Wordlessly, he let her and the colors she brought with her inside. His blue eyes watched her walk through the short hallway that opened into his suite, her footing sure and her posture straight.
It was the first thing he saw as different about her now.
She stopped at the threshold between the his seating area and the smaller space where his dining table stood.
"Please sit down," he said.
"Oh, um…thank you." She chose the dining area and sat in the table's solitary chair. Those eyes of hers stared about the space, at the small and low-hanging chandelier above head, the weathered gold shield on the far wall, and white roses kept in the vase the servers left for him—for etiquette's sake or kindness, he was never sure.
Her cheeks were turning pink; her fingers rubbed her forehead, and he noticed the smudges of black ink on her fingertips. "Luna told me that you helped bring me back to my room after what happened. I wanted to say thank you."
"You are welcome."
They shared silence. Endymion saw the faraway dreamy look to her eyes, but had no idea of her thoughts. He wondered if she truly remembered all that had happened in that corridor…
"I'm sorry…I just need to go see. The door. I keep hearing something from the door."
He looked at her, and felt the panic within him rising. "Serena, there is no door! What…what are you hearing?"
The young girl turned away from him without answering and walked further into the hallway. The prince made the move to follow and bring her back to him, but felt the air shift with his first step. A force had suddenly wedged itself between them. It was nothing he could see or break through, only feel as it pushed him further away from her until he was almost out the hallway.
Endymion wanted to call to her, but he could feel that power washing over him, taking away his voice. His knees hit the floor, unable to stand any longer.
He could only watch her get closer to that wall and run her hands against every crevice on its surface. He could see her speaking to the air, as if in conversation. Her touch began to focus on a particular spot, and he saw the effort she made to move whatever stopped her, but she eventually fell to her knees in resignation.
Four thin white lines of light grew around the perimeter of the wall—the door she spoke of—and poured into the corridor and washed over Serena. Her pigtails rose from the ground, and then her body began to follow, her back arching and her arms stretching as she rose like a bird in flight. Her bathrobe slipped from her shoulders; her slippers fell to the ground, one after another. He watched her be covered in its glow until only her silhouette remained. The light around her pulsed, and he felt it in his chest. It felt like it was burning within him, spreading from throat to torso…
He willed himself to move once more and found that he could—that he was now allowed to near her. He half-crawled, half-stumbled forward.
"Serena…" he choked out hoarsely.
Her eyes opened, but instead of her pale blue irises, her eyes were glowing pure white. And the mark on her forehead, that image of the moon…it glowed as well…
"I saw something about the princess." She said suddenly.
"Serenity?"
She nodded, staring intently at the tabletop once more. "It was something from the past. It was the day the queen told her she was dying…"
He remembered that day clearly. The sight of blood on the queen's hand…Serenity in his embrace as he finally told her of his feelings. That day had happened mere feet from where the young girl sat now.
The prince stared into Serena's face. Part of him felt as though she was here to ask him about what he and Serenity had shared. He felt as though yesterday she would have done so.
But today was a different day, and the young girl before him did none of those things. "I think the reason why I saw it…is because there's something I needed to see."
Endymion stared at this girl who seemed to change every time he encountered her, and thought of the visions that had crossed his own mind—of Diamond's hateful glare, and Serenity's expression of mistrust. And he recollected what else he had witnessed before in that hallway, what he had not been able to tell Luna and Artemis when he had appeared to them in the dead of night with Serena in his arms.
The thing he knew only he was meant to see…
Her eyes, the way that light shined from them and caught the dust in the air… He was struck with the memory of moonlight falling on his face from a window. The warmth in his chest pulsed through his veins again, and he lifted his arm to hold her hand. "Serena? Serena?" The pad of his thumb rubbed the back of her hand.
"Endymion…"
The sound of his name on her lips was different from before. His hand slipped from hers and he took a step back.
Those eyes of hers trained themselves on him and he felt he could see the furthest reaches of the universe. "Prince Endymion, you must protect her."
"Protect…protect who?"
"Serena. You must promise me you'll protect her."
Endymion felt a chill go through his body. Her voice. Her voice sounded like it was hers—Serena's—and yet, he knew it was not hers. Not the girl he had come to know and made him smile; who he, in this moment, feared would disappear without a trace.
More than a century had passed since he heard the exact timbre and pitch and inflections of this voice, but there was no way he could ever forget what used to fill his ears. "…Serenity…?"
She smiled ruefully, like he was wrong. But he could not be mistaken, could he?
"What do you mean, protect her? From what?"
"There was a voice yesterday."
He looked down at her and saw her eyes casted downward, her face solemn and serious.
"In the hallway. A voice from told me that I needed to trust in the people around me. Like Artemis and Luna and…you." She looked at him and then looked away once more. "…I'm going to respond to Parliament and the letter." Her fingertips pinched the corner of one of her envelopes, a white one without a written address, and gave him a brief smile. "I know that it's important that I do it, but I'm just…scared about what will happen."
He reached across the table and held her hand, rubbing his thumb across her skin.
For the first time since she walked in, she looked at him and kept her eyes on him.
"You are already learning the answer… Just, promise me you'll take care of Serena. Please promise me."
He stared at the girl who floated above him, the voice that came out of her lips. "I…promise…"
"Thank you."
She, Serenity—she, Serena—gasped and suddenly came down. He caught her and held her close. His eyes stared at the wall before him, at the carvings around him, and felt the power recede through them to contain its secrets once more.
A/N: Longest chapter thus far. Hardest chapter to write as well. But it's here! I think my biggest accomplishments with this chapter is having Artemis finally shine! And really letting Serena find the strength she's going to need.