Lady's notes: Ooh, tough chapter. I'm serious, I worked a lot on this one and I still don't know if I like it. Eeesh... I spent too much time on it, probably. I know, I know, "you can't spend too much time editing!" Oh Lord, can you ever. But everyone that I had available to beta said that it was fine, but I dunno... I can't put my finger on this, but I'm not 100 percent happy with it... maybe I'm just beating myself up. You guys tell me what you think! And between the last chapter and this one, did I work enough on Capella to bring her character out more?

Supernova in the Sky

Ch. 8

"No Capella! I want to hear what he has to say!"

The blonde was shocked at Kotori's words. Sure, she seemed to be constantly defying her, but this was serious. The redhead never questioned Capella's judgment in serious matters; she knew what was good for her. This time, though… this time, Kotori could feel something inside of her that hadn't been there before. It was time to stop giving in.

"Excuse me?" Capella's glare was almost poisonous, as was her tone. Shigeo didn't like where this was going.

"You heard me!" Kotori shouted, standing as straight as she could. "This is my business, and I can tell that you've been trying to stick your nose in it for an awful long time!"

"Your business is my business!"

"What? Who the hell died and made you my damn mother?"

"Actually," the man stepped in, putting his hand up before the girls could escalate to violence, "I came here to tell you about that. Your mother, your home, everything." This was when Rufus, who hadn't put himself above eavesdropping, came out of Kotori's room, making eye contact steadily with Shigeo. He worried about Capella and needed some reassurance that the girl wouldn't pummel him. It was time, at last, though. These past few days had seemed to stretch on forever in anticipation for the man's arrival.

"We should go somewhere else for this," he said quietly, reminding them that they were in a house of sleeping children. "Perhaps where I contacted you, Shigeo?" The man recalled the meeting, and how much he hadn't appreciated the ghost-like appearance of it. However, there was no time to waste finding a new place.

"Hey! I didn't agree to any of this! No one is going anywhere!" Capella snapped, folding her arms. Then a scowl, nearly a grimace, came from Kotori that was so acidic, if the blonde hadn't have had a similar look, it would have eaten her away until there was nothing left. Narrowing her eyes, she spit her words out.

"You aren't making decisions for me anymore." Capella swallowed pensively. "I have a much more appealing life elsewhere that you knew of and never had the courtesy to tell me about!"

They didn't understand! No one understood! As Capella watched them - Shigeo, Kotori, and Rufus - leave the orphanage, tears welded up in her, and as the first scent of rain filled her lungs, they rolled down her cheeks.

"It's not like that!" she called after them, biting her lip. Kotori stopped to look back. "It's not! I only wanted to protect you! You have no idea what it's like there!"

Recalling a very striking allusion from a foreign literature class in school, Kotori found herself stuck between Scylla and Charybdis. An ancient myth in which the hero was traveling down a river, stopped because there was a great monster on either side of them. As the myth's plot went, she realized that no matter which way she went, whether it was with Shigeo or back to Capella, there was going to be hell to pay, and life as she knew it had already been ruined. But, who was to blame? She could point fingers at Capella until she was blue in the face. She could let her down. She could let down a talking cat and a man who had all the answers she ever wanted. She would let down Rufus, who had so quickly shown her how much he cared… if she went with him and this other man, she'd be a princess. She'd get everything she ever wanted. But, she'd break Capella's heart.

In all the movies, books, and television shows she had ever known, whenever the protagonist was faced with such a horrible choice, there was always someway to avoid picking one, and they could get around the subject altogether and put a big fat band-aid over the problem, sometimes with gauze, and live happily ever after. This wasn't like a movie, book, or show. The hard reality of the real world was settling into her.

"Give me a sign," she breathed into the air. Looking up into the gray clouds blanketing the sky, she wished for anything - a glimpse of the sun, a flock of birds… anything. What she got was a cold plink of water that fell right on her forehead. Oh! Great…

"Capella…" she started, her mind reaching for words, "I can't live like this anymore. I can't live only knowing a tiny fragment of who I am. Some people can, but… you know me. Don't you?" More tears cascaded down the blonde's face as she stood, watching the redhead and her reluctance to move forward or backward.

Maybe it was time. And then, she made a decision of her own and grabbed her jacket hanging on the wall, a small burst of rage going off inside of her.

"Goddamn…! I hate you Shigeo! You took Tinia away from me, but I won't let you take Kotori, too!" She jammed her arms into the jacket's sleeves and shut the door behind her, running to the redhead, her eyes full of tears. "You make me seem horrible! You make me seem like I'm the bad guy! I only wanted to keep her safe!"

"The Queen needs her!" Shigeo shouted, clenching his fist. "Her Kingdom needs her!"

"Even you know what the Queen is doing is wrong!"

"STOP!"

The quarreling two looked to Kotori, and the look she bore made guilt boil inside of them. Ultimately they were going to tear her apart if they didn't come to terms. Shigeo sighed. He knew what was going to happen when he told Kotori everything she deserved to know, and while he might get what he wanted back, the girl would change beyond all recognition. He figured Capella might have a reason to be angry with him…

"I…"

Insecurities washed over him like he was caught in an undertow. Sucking him down deeper and deeper. He threw his head into the palm of his hand before finally giving in.

"I'm sorry Capella."

The blonde folded her arms, leaning on her hip. She wasn't satisfied, and her tall, lean figure standing out in the middle of the cul-de-sac said defiantly so.

"Are you?"

"This is for the best. Kotori deserves to know. She can't keep making up scenarios about her past! I never wanted to make you look like the bad guy… and I never meant for anything to happen to Tinia that day. I'm sorry." Capella sighed deeply, and to Kotori and Rufus's shock, she slapped him with a fury she had been building up for years.

"Well let's get on with it. This isn't my revelation, it's Kotori's!"

Rufus began leading them in the direction of the building once more, a foggy feeling in his head. He wondered if anyone else could feel it. An odd energy was in the air, and it made his stomach lurch. And considering the size of his stomach, that was a lot of lurching. It began to sprinkle very, very faintly, almost covering the streets of Tokyo in a clear, gentle mist.

But the gentleness of it had to be a ruse. Merope's presence had made him uneasy the more he thought about it. She was here for a reason… and the only reason she wouldn't be able to tell him what it was would be because it was bad. Merope. He remembered the crush he had on her many years ago when they were just past kittens. Finally, they reached the desolate building, and Rufus called upon his key again.

"What's that? How'd you do it?" Kotori asked. He had been expecting it, since he himself had asked the same thing when it appeared.

"Here," he said, handing it out to her with his mouth. "I can make another one for myself. It's… the Rufus key."

"Brilliant. Did you make it up yourself?" He looked snidely to Capella and ignored her words, letting Kotori open the backdoor to their meeting place. The white, ghost-like curtains were still there, reaching out to them, and the slight breeze that came in whispered a dull song that brought goosebumps to Kotori's skin.

"Alright… this is better," Shigeo said, knowing it was a lie. He didn't feel better in that place at all, but at least no one would hear them. "Kotori… do you know who I am?"

He took one of her hands and held it tightly in his own, and as much as the redhead expected herself to be repulsed, there was something that made her hand relax in his grasp. She searched his eyes wordlessly, seeing that they were tired, but vibrantly looking back. Hopefully looking back.

"I feel like I do… but I don't. I feel like I've seen you before, too… but I know that I haven't." The hope gleaming in his eyes disappeared.

"I'm your husband," he said. "We live together in the Sun Kingdom. We have a daughter. You don't remember any of it?" She kept searching his eyes. Somewhere in there was a key… it would be the key to remembering everything. She knew it. But was it really there?

Suddenly, she saw the sky flash in her mind, the inky black sky, spotted with millions of tiny sequins, flashing brightly. Below her was a road of diamonds, and on either side of that road was the prettiest light she had ever seen. She heard a name in her ears said softly by a voice that… was her own?

"Shigeo!" she said, losing her breath. The man grasped harder onto her hand, trying to steady her. But the shock was cutting into her nerves, and she was shivering uncontrollably.

"Yes," he said softly. "Our daughter's?" She didn't take her eyes off of his. There were more answers the deeper she stared, and yet another vision went off inside of her mind. Her own arms holding a baby… and going off around her were the horrid sounds of what might've been a war…

"Hoshiko…?" Shigeo nodded, and before he knew what the feeling was inside of him, a tear fell down his face.

"I'm sorry…" he said, wiping it away. "Time passes much faster on the sun than it does on Earth. It's been a very long time without you."

"I lived in a castle… a tower!" Kotori said, her voice growing shrilly. "I can see it all! The window I stared through… the stars, the bright light we built our lives upon, I-I…"

"The fundamental beliefs on star kingdoms are different than those here," Capella said, folding her arms. Her eyes were still stern, focused on Shigeo. "The people of Earth look for their light in the sky. Ours came from the very ground we built our society upon. You know how she takes to change."

"Capella?" The redhead looked to her now.

"… Yes?"

"I see you, too. What did you do there?" It was finally time to answer the questions pertaining to her. Kotori deserved to know why she was constantly hovering over her all the time, she supposed.

"I was your caretaker when you were young. Your mother and father were very busy with the war, and you needed attention. Before Shigeo came, there was me," she explained. "Then he came along when you were older… about 14, I think. On the star of Sol, it's customary to wed young, so the two of you did. You had a child at 15, and by then, you didn't need me anymore. So I went to my own family."

"You had a family?"

"Of course I did! I wasn't some mindless drone… I had a husband and a daughter, too. Then, times got excessively dire on the sun what with the strange war going on, your father died, and your mother said that she wanted you to be taken to Earth for your safety. If anything happened to her, you would have to take over and rule. She figured there was no sense in the both of you getting hurt. Shigeo stayed to fight in the war, and I was once again appointed to watch over you."

Kotori swallowed hard, her shivering mellowing out a little. She was only remembering bits and pieces of things. Everything else was just a shock to her system.

"What happened to my daughter?" she then asked, her hand falling out of Shigeo's. When he nor Capella answered her, dread fell over her like a veil. "Well?" There was more silence, and the two of them looked at each other guiltily, almost playing a quiet game, the loser having to hand over the truth.

Now, Rufus remembered what Shigeo had said to him on that one fateful day when he had called out his name three times. It was the first day he had been on Earth. He remembered his sadness as he told the story, and his reluctance as well. Someone had to tell Kotori, and if Shigeo and Capella weren't, then…

"She disappeared before they could send her down to Earth with you," he said. "I didn't think it was fair for you to wait through their silence to hear the truth."

This had to be another dream. Was she in a coma? Did she fall down a flight of stairs or get mugged in an alley somewhere? What was going on? Kotori sat down on the white floor and held her head in her hands, fighting away an oncoming headache. She wanted to be a princess, she really did, but she didn't want to fight! She didn't want to go to war or do any of the hard things that a princess might have to do… she just wanted to be catered to…

"Does this mean I'm not a virgin?"

Her question was ignored.

"So how is the progress of the war? You came just recently, didn't you?" Capella asked, still glaring. It seemed that there was nothing he could do to deter her anger. Therefore, he stopped trying. A few of the insecurities dwindled away.

"It's just as bad, though you couldn't tell by looking at it from here. It's from some group called the Dark Matter Confederation, though I don't know their motives. Queen Solennia has nearly been assassinated, and the people are planning a full out mutiny next. There may only be a few choices, since it's gotten this bad." Capella's blood froze when she heard the name 'Dark Matter Confederation'. But, she ignored it, keeping the experience with Neo Sailor Moon and the police officers to herself.

"Well, knowing that time is passing much faster there than here, what are those other choices?" the blonde inquired. Her patience wasn't going to last her for the entire recap, and she herself knew this. Shigeo always wore her patience down.

"You senshi know what to do, don't you?"

Capella's reaction was very much unexpected. She released a raging scream and with amazing strength born from her anger, she lifted the man's 200 plus pound form an inch into the air by his cloak collar, sneered, growled, and would have bit his face off if Kotori and Rufus hadn't have been there watching. Shigeo's insecurities came back.

"We are not doing that! No way in hell! Do you know how dangerous that is?"

"Capella! Put him down!" Kotori was the Sun Princess, and now she knew it, so the blonde abided and eased her muscles, Shigeo coming back to terms with solid ground. It was only an inch, but an inch was an inch, and it was an inch that a female with nearly the height of an Amazon had brought him into the air.

"Listen," Shigeo said, attempting to bottle his shredded self-esteem, "all I'm saying is that wouldn't it be better to gather the rest of you as a team instead of the two of you coming back and attempting to fight both a war and an angry population?"

"I am willing to fight her battles myself!" Capella spat, poking him in the chest.

"Excuse me, I'm willing to fight my own battles!"

Rolling her eyes, Capella once again folded her arms. "Thanks a lot," she murmured to him. Suddenly, before anything else could be said, something caught Rufus's eye. A dark silhouette in one of the windows leapt away and disappeared.

"Merope!"

And that was the end of it, he thought. She had heard it all. Everything. And by now, he was ready to believe that she wasn't on his side.