AN: Wow sorry it took so long. Man, my mother still hasn't got my computer fixed. And for those who groan and say a 20 year old should look after her own computer, I didn't break the damn thing so I refuse to pay money to get it fixed. Anyway thank you all for reading this story and keeping me going. I will try harder to get this story finished then work on Only the Beginning, which is just sitting there gathering dust in the corner. I wrote the next chapter but it is in a book that I can't find cos my room is a mess and I can't remember all of what I wanted in the next chapter.
For the below chapter I need to say a big thank you to ShadowSonic who read through and gave me guidance in writing this chapter. And also gave me ideas. You rock!
Anyways, onto the story then! Love you all!
Chapter 11 – Not us
Raye stared blankly at Amy's solemn face.
"Traitor…Heero?" Raye repeated disbelievingly and Amy looked at her sympathetically, knowing this must be hard for Raye to hear. Amy had only just found out that Raye and Heero were wed and Mina had left it up to Amy to tell Raye of her husband's demise. The reasons why, Mina didn't divulge, but Mina refused to look Amy in the eye and looked awfully guilty. Amy knew something had happened between the best friends.
Something terrible.
"I'm sorry Raye, I know this must be hard." Amy said sweetly, rubbing Raye's back gently as the young girl shook with emotion. Amy couldn't even begin to imagine how she would feel if she were in Raye's place and Heero was Duo.
"He would never…" Raye whispered softly and Amy knew she had to be firm. Raye had to understand the way things were now. She couldn't let emotion get in the way of her duty, that was the creed of all senshi.
"He has gone Raye; Queen Serenity deemed him a traitor," Amy said, feeling terrible for having to be so cruel. Raye buried her face in her knees. She sat against the closet door in her room, arms wrapped around her body. Amy knelt besides her trying to give her comfort but she knew there was nothing she could do to take away Raye's pain.
"I can't believe it," Raye protested weakly and Amy hugged her friend gently.
"You must Raye, you can no longer think of him as your husband, he is your enemy," Amy whispered, and Raye struggled against Amy's grasp.
"No!" Raye cried out trying to break away but Amy held Raye in place with a strength even she didn't know she had.
"Yes," Amy said strongly and Raye turned to Amy, her struggling ceasing at the look on Amy's serene face. Amy and Raye were friends long before they had even met Serena, or any of the other princesses. Fire and Ice. Ice puts out the fire. Amy had always been the only one to have the calming effect on Raye and Raye trusted her.
"No…oh God…Heero!" Raye burst into tears, sobbing uncontrollably as Amy held her.
Mina quietly entered the room and stood by the door, wanting so much to hug Raye with Amy but knowing that Raye wouldn't want her comfort, not now.
"Raye…" Mina whispered and Raye raised her tearstained face from Amy's shoulder, her eyes glaring hatefully.
"You told her didn't you?" Raye spat accusingly and Amy sensed that this was not where she wanted to be. Raye may have cried out her sorrow, but her anger was still fresh, as the Lady of Fire scared Amy a little when she was angry.
"Excuse me," Amy excused herself scurrying from the room. Mina stepped towards Raye who remained on the floor.
"Yes." Mina said, admitting to the betrayal, and Raye dragged herself to her feet and walked up to Mina so that they were face to face.
"You, who were my dearest friend, betrayed me," Raye said softly, frowning, heartbroken that her best friend had done this to her.
"Raye, I'm sorry…" Mina tried to apologize but Raye waved her apologies away, of no mind to listen to what Mina had to say.
"Speak to me no more, I no longer wish to call you my friend." Raye told her coldly, running from her room and left Mina standing there.
"Raye…please Raye listen to me!" Mina realized she was talking to no one and sank into a small ball on the floor as she whispered to herself the explanation she had wanted to tell Raye: "Queen Serenity promised me that she wouldn't force me to marry Malachite if I told her what she already suspected. That you had married her son and that now you carry his child without even knowing…"
Raye knew she had to let go of some of her anger and so she found herself in the training room. There, she wasn't really surprised to see Wufei and Lita sparring. Wufei and Lita stopped their fighting when she entered and with a look Wufei sent Lita to the bench. He gestured to Raye to come and face him as his opponent. Raye did as he bade without protest, not having the strength to argue with him. They didn't fight immediately. They just stared at each other, brother and sister.
"I could have protected you from this sister, why didn't you trust in me?" Wufei asked coldly and Raye shrugged her shoulders helplessly.
"How could I tell you Wufei? Heero is…was your friend, yet you think everyone is unsuitable for me, you would never have allowed us to wed," Raye pointed out and Wufei threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.
"And you wouldn't be like this if I had stopped your marriage." Wufei spat back at her. Raye tilted her chin haughtily.
"Whatever happens Wufei, I shall never regret my marriage to Heero, I love him." Raye said, her words angering Wufei further.
"You are a fool sister, Heero was never worthy of you, and you were a fool to be taken in by him. He doesn't deserve you, now or ever," Wufei said darkly, hating Heero for what he had done to his sister; causing her all this pain.
Raye took his words to heart and let her pride flare and her mouth with it.
"You are just jealous I had the guts to do what you couldn't; you didn't have the courage to ask Lita's father for her hand like you should have done a long time ago. At least Heero and I had the courage to face our demons." Raye said proudly and Wufei glared daggers at her, offended at her tone.
"You know nothing of what you speak sister," Wufei warned her but Raye couldn't stop.
"Even now, Lita sits there patiently waiting but you still procrastinate, you are a weakling and a coward; YOU don't deserve HER." Raye frustratingly yelled at him and Wufei's face went bright red.
"Shut your mouth Raye," he roared. Startled, Raye fell silent.
"The truth hurts doesn't it brother?" Raye said softly, taunting him.
"The way the truth about Heero hurts you?" Wufei retorted and Raye narrowed her eyes at him.
"It's all lies, Heero would never betray the kingdom, I love him Wufei," Raye tried to appeal to her brother's gentle side, but she should have known better.
"Heero is a traitor Raye, the sooner you realize this the sooner you can move on," Wufei said harshly and Raye stomped her foot.
"No he isn't!"
"Then let us fight for it. If I beat you, you will never say to me or anyone else that you love Heero; if I beat you, you will believe Heero is guilty as charged. If you win, I will stand by your side when you plead to Queen Serenity to spare her sons life…if they find Heero at all." Wufei sneered as he gave his ultimatum and Raye took a deep breath.
"It's a deal," Raye confirmed sinking down low into her attack position.
Wufei did the same and they circled each other dangerously. Raye knew she was not evenly matched. Her brother had been taught the art of war since he was a child; Raye had only come into her training when she turned thirteen. Wufei lunged and Raye flipped over him, but Wufei anticipated her move as he always did and had a kick ready, hitting her in the chest, forcing her to stumble backwards. Raye wheezed trying to catch her breath, as she kept her eyes on Wufei who grinned smugly. He was better than her and he knew it. In hand-to-hand Raye was no match for her brother, but she had something he did not have yet…planetary powers.
"Mars Star Makeup!"
Raye transformed into the Senshi of Mars. Wufei didn't even react although he took note, knowing his sister now could use her powers of fire. Mars concentrated her powers.
"Mars Celestial Fire Surround!" Mars cried out and a ring of fireballs surrounded Wufei, but he jumped out of their grasp and ran straight for Mars taking out his katana. Mars was too startled to react as Wufei whipped by her, slicing her forearms. Mars cried out in pain and she heard Lita cry out for Wufei to stop. But he didn't listen to her. Mars turned to face her brother, and Wufei had the gall to smile. Wufei sheathed his katana and ran at her again, Mars waited until the last moment before she turned, dropping low and flung Wufei over her shoulder so that he landed on his back onto the mat in the training room. Wufei flipped up to his feet and Mars kicked out at him, catching him unawares in the chest so that he stumbled backwards, rubbing his chest in indignation, fire rising behind his eyes. The fire that his sensei had warned him about, the fire that would cause him to lose control, the fire that would consume him and make him a Prince of War.
"You cannot win against me Wufei, I am the Princess of Mars," Mars reminded him with a half-smile, and the jibe ignited Wufei's anger, smoldering out any feeling or compassion that he had held onto. Wufei had to make Mars understand that he was only trying to protect her, Wufei had to make her see that he was right, Wufei had to hurt her to show her the truth. Wufei circled Mars, who powered up another attack.
"Mars Fire Ignite!" Mars cried out sending a fireball Wufei's way and Wufei took out his katana jumping out of the fireballs' way. Mars saw his eyes flashing red, and that was the last thing she could remember before seeing a blur as Wufei came at her. She felt a pain searing through her belly as she realized that Wufei had kneed her in the stomach, and a different pain went through her lower abdomen, vaguely Mars wondered what that pain meant. Wufei moved behind her and with his katana sliced Mars' back with a cross. Mars remembered that Queen Serenity had scars just like these from her own brother.
Mars gave a cry of pain and she could hear in the background Lita crying out for Wufei to stop, not game to stop him herself. Wufei rounded to the front of Mars again and punched her twice across the face so that Mars fell to the ground. Wufei kicked her once more in the stomach before Lita grabbed onto his arm and tugged on his so hard he lost his balance. Turning on Lita furiously, he saw her emerald green eyes as his fire calmed and he came to himself.
"Wufei stop please! Raye isn't moving," Lita begged, tears streaming from her eyes and when Wufei nodded Lita let him go and ran to Raye's aide, her senshi uniform fading away to be replaced by her normal everyday clothes. Lita felt for Raye's pulse and Wufei's heart nearly stopped when Lita didn't say anything immediately.
Wufei felt all his emotions come back to him, and guilt consumed him, but he couldn't allow anyone to see how he felt. He was a soldier, it wasn't allowed, and he couldn't be weak and show emotion. All Wufei wanted to do was run to Raye's side and take her into his arms tenderly and apologize but his pride and his training would not allow him to do so. Instead he stood there immobile and unfeeling, staring down at his sister.
"Is she…?" Wufei couldn't finish.
"No, she lives…" Lita said softly and Wufei knelt down beside Raye's head and saw she was barely conscious.
"Remember our deal little sister." Wufei whispered warningly in her ear and Raye turned away from him starting to cry as Wufei walked away from her.
Lita looked down at Raye's prone body and noticed that there was a lot of blood running from between Raye's legs and Lita let out a horrified scream.
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Michelle, Princess of Neptune, looked over at her friend and gave a half smile.
"Amara, stop pacing." Michelle said laughing lightly. Amara, the Princess of
Uranus, scowled at her. The Neptunian was relaxing on the lounge outside Queen Serenity's throne room, her turquoise eyes watching Amara, slightly amused.
"Michelle, this is terrible, we cannot allow this to happen…" Amara muttered, shaking her short blonde hair violently. An elegant young lady entered the waiting room, her long dark green hair falling to her thighs in thick waves.
"Cannot allow what to happen Amara?" Princess Trista of Pluto asked, although she already knew full well why Amara was so furious.
"We cannot allow that… that… Prince…to come to our outer systems, he is a menace! He is…" Amara couldn't bring herself to say anything else and Trista smiled at her, amused at this behavior.
"He is the Queen's son, not some monster Amara." Trista remarked as the Senshi of the Sky grumbled something under her breath and Michelle chuckled.
"Perhaps Trista, Amara doesn't want to see the Prince again because she feels threatened by him?" Michelle asked, her eyes teasing, and Amara folded her arms under her chest, not at all amused by their conversation.
"Indeed, do you remember what happened the first time they met?" Trista commented, following along with the joke and Amara thought back to that day 5 years ago, even though she didn't want to.
Amara had been fifteen that year, and delegates from Earth had come to visit Uranus so her parents were busy with meetings. Amara had taken the opportunity to head down into the training room. Walking inside she was surprised at seeing five young boys about her age in the training room, two of them watching the other two fighting each other and one of them was alone, working out on a punching bag. His clothes were ratty, and covered in dirt; he looked like a slave, or servant. Amara surmised that he must've been a servant to one of the four boys whom were all dressed in fine clothes and jewels. Amara decided that, as a slave, he shouldn't have rights to use the royal training room; he should've been making sure his master wasn't getting hurt too much.
She walked up to him and stared down at him haughtily.
"I wish to use the punching bag, leave." Amara told him and without a word, without even looking at her, the boy turned and walked to the weights bench. Sitting down he began working the weights without another word.
Furious at his audacity, Amara walked over to him and it was then the boy looked into her eyes with a cold Prussian blue gaze. If she didn't know better she'd swear they were the same as the Moon Queens'.
"I wish to use the weights," Amara told him and the boy looked back at the unused punching bag.
"You have the punching bag as you asked." He pointed out and Amara placed her hands on her hips.
"Well, I want the weights as well." she retorted and the boy narrowed his eyes at her, disliking her tone.
"Careful princess…gluttony is not an attractive feature in a young lady." He warned her mockingly and Amara's mouth practically dropped open; how dare this slave boy talk to her like that!
"You disrespect me so? Just who do you think you are?" Amara demanded, her voice rising, and the other four boys stopped their game to watch as they sensed they were in for a show.
Heero put down the weights and got to his feet. Amara didn't even see the attack coming even though she had been staring hard at the boy, watching him closely. Heero lunged at her and punched her three times, once across the face and twice in the stomach. When she doubled over Heero sank down and kicked her legs out from under her, so that Uranus went flying flat on her back. Heero then rolled her over slammed his foot onto the back of her head so she couldn't get up.
"THAT is who I am." Heero whispered before removing his foot and leaving the room.
The other boys had started to crowd around her, apologizing for his behavior.
"Who was he?" Amara gasped, blood rolling from the side of her mouth where Heero had first punched her and split open her lip.
"That was Heero, Prince of the Moon." A voice told her, it was one of the 4 boys, he had violet eyes and a long brown braid and wasn't able to wipe the smirk from his face and from that moment Amara knew she wouldn't like Heero.
Amara came back to herself, and saw Michelle and Trista both smiling at her and glowered at them both.
"I just don't want to have to watch over that self-inflated, cocky little…" Amara didn't get to finish her rant as a voice interrupted her.
"You won't need to watch him Amara, Heero is gone and the next time you see him, you have my permission to kill him." Queen Serenity came upon the three
Princesses unexpectedly and Amara's mouth dropped open.
"What?" they all asked, shocked at her expressionless face, and Queen Serenity continued.
"He has betrayed the kingdom and joined the Earth in an attack against the Moon, he is a traitor and is to be killed on sight," Queen Serenity said this without feeling in her voice and Michelle was horrified.
"Queen Serenity, Heero is your son." Michelle reminded the Queen who shrugged her slim shoulders.
"Not anymore, this is war, we may need your help but for now I need you all to return to your posts. I will call for you if you are needed." Queen Serenity commanded them, and the three princesses bowed watching as Queen Serenity returned to the throne room, the door closing behind her leaving them alone again.
Michelle looked over at the Princess of Pluto, shocked to see the woman pale and cowering as she collapsed onto the nearest chair.
"Trista what's the matter?" Michelle asked gently; Trista shook her head in disbelief.
"I saw this in the Gates of Time, but I didn't think it would come so soon." Trista whispered more to herself than to Michelle and Amara; Amara's eyes widened.
"You saw this?" Amara asked, Trista nodded slowly in response.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Michelle enquired and Trista shook her head, a slow tear rolling from her eye as she remembered what she had seen.
"I couldn't disrupt what is destined to happen, we cannot disrupt what is about to happen," Trista told them, her voice full of emotion and Amara and Michelle knew now the destiny of their Kingdom.
"The Moon will fall?" Amara asked quietly and Trista nodded.
"And we must do nothing," Michelle added and again Trista nodded.
"I hope you are right about this Trista." Amara warned the Princess of Pluto and Trista shut her eyes to block back her tears.
"I am, our time here has ended and we must take Christine with us. All three of you must be put in a deep sleep and be reborn on Earth." Trista knew what had to be done and Michelle and Amara knew they had to do as she said. They trusted Trista with their lives, their souls; if this was destiny then they had to follow.
"What about you Trista?" Michelle asked noticing that Trista had only said that she, Amara and Christine would be going into deep sleep. Trista looked sadly at them.
"I must guard the Gates of Time."
"Alone?" Michelle asked, her hand grasping for Amara's and Amara squeezed Michelle's hand lovingly. Michelle couldn't imagine being without Amara, she couldn't imagine doing what Trista had to do.
"That is my destiny." Trista said, allowing a little bit of self-pity to seep into her voice and Amara and Michelle impulsively gave her a hug.
"We have to find Christine quickly." Amara reminded them after a few moments and Trista wiped away whatever tears had strayed down her face.
"Let's go."
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Heero was creeping through the Earth palace, carefully so as not to be seen by any of the soldiers running past every so often. The whole palace was in an uproar. It was obvious from what he had overheard that not everyone was happy with Relena taking over from Endymion, and no one was happy with the war. But none dared speak out loudly against any of the Generals or Relena. It was either fight or die. As Heero was making his way through the cellar he heard someone coming and hid behind one of the shelves covered by the darkness.
There was shuffling coming closer towards him, almost like this person was trying to sneak. A figure came tiptoeing by Heero's hiding place and Heero could have rolled his eyes when he saw who it was.
"What do you think you are doing?" Heero growled menacingly and Endymion nearly had a heart attack.
"Heero!" he squeaked and Heero frowned at him motioning for him to be silent.
"Prince Endymion, why are you not on the Moon with my sister?" Heero demanded and Endymion frowned with concern.
"Relena is not herself, I came here to help her and discovered she has taken my army and is about to march against the moon, without the generals behind me I cannot help my kingdom, they were trained to be the best, that was why they were my protectors but now that they have turned on me, I cannot do anything, I have to protect my people," Endymion explained why he was there and Heero listened his face impassive.
"And who is protecting Serena?" Heero demanded and Endymion gulped.
"The senshi can protect her, I need to help Relena," Endymion told Heero who shook his head. Heero didn't want Serena to be any more worried than she already would be.
"Serena will be sick with worry without you, leave Relena to me, I will help her, you go back and protect Serena," Heero commanded fully expecting Endymion to do as told, but Endymion shook his head.
"No, I won't leave earth without knowing that Relena is safe," Endymion put his foot down, after all Relena was his cousin, she was like a sister to Endymion. Heero advanced upon the Prince of the Earth with a dangerous look in his eyes.
"You will do as I say," Heero threatened Endymion who found some pride and dignity and decided to use it.
"No Heero, you cannot order me around, I am heir to the throne of Earth and I am-" Endymion didn't get any further into his speech as Heero punched him in the jaw and knocked him out in one quick punch.
"-A pain in the rear…" Heero muttered, hefting Endymion onto his shoulder.
Quietly, Heero made his way into the transportation chamber and deposited Endymion onto the mat, dialing in the co-ordinates and sending him back up to the Moon. Serena was Endymion's business from now on. Heero would be the one saving Relena. Heero spared a thought for his wife, his beautiful Raye. He didn't worry for her safety, he knew Wufei would protect her with his life, and Raye could certainly take care of herself. Heero pushed Raye from his mind and concentrated on his mission.