Hey guys! I hope everyone is doing well! Here is Chapter Nineteen. Please remember to review when you have finished reading. Also, I'm still looking for an artist! Please let me know if you are one or if you know of any!

Thanks a bunch,

Amelie

Star-Crossed Lovers-Chapter Nineteen

It was around midnight, and Serena and the Sailor Scouts were still awake, celebrating Prince Michael's arrest. They danced, they laughed, they chattered, happy that life could go back to normal now. Raye even drank to the point of intoxication, causing her to jump around wildly, and not to mention, quite idiotically. None of the adults at the ball seemed to care (Queen Serenity having retired to her private chambers earlier in the night), however, and let her go on with her shouts, her stumbles, and her overall shenanigans. Serena knew that the Princess of Mars was just having her fun, even though she probably wouldn't be able to remember it in the morning.

She smiled and let the party go on.

Yet, unexpectedly, the door to the ballroom flew open and in ran Prince Darien. Serena, however, was too happy to notice the look on his face. She flung herself into his arms and kissed his neck.

"Darien!" she shouted. "Isn't it wonderful? They caught Michael! I'm so happy! Aren't you?"

She let out a smile, so bright and so loving, and then she took a look at him properly.

He truly looked like he had just seen a ghost. His face was so pale and drawn, his breathing was heavy, and his hair was quite disheveled, as though he been running his hands through it rather compulsively.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her face falling. "Aren't you happy?"

And then, she realized what his predicament must be. Michael was his brother. Of course, Darien wouldn't have been happy about the boy being arrested and accused of rape. How could she have been so stupid? She scolded herself inwardly for such uncaring actions.

"I-I'm sorry," she stuttered. "I should be more thoughtful of you. He's your brother, after all, and I know—"

"This isn't about Michael," the Prince interrupted quickly and looked around the ballroom, searching for someone or something. Serena wasn't sure which. "I need to—I must speak with your mother! Where is she?"

"My mother?" Serena echoed, uncertainly. "She—she's in her study with my aunt and uncle. Why?"

"Your aunt and uncle?" Darien repeated, his eyes widening. "Are either of them kin to your father?"

"Yes," the Moon Princess responded slowly, not understanding what her father had to do with anything. "My aunt…was his sister."

"Then, I must speak with her as well," he said, sounding so flustered.

"What's going on?" Mina asked. She, Amy, and Lita walked over to Serena to see what the commotion was about.

"I don't kn—" Serena began, but she was cut off by an insistent Darien.

"I must speak with them. Now!" he demanded. "Show me where they are."

"O-of course," Serena said, at a loss to what this could possibly be about.

She and the other girls, including Raye, whom Amy had dragged out of the ballroom and away from a group of impish young men, led him up the marble staircase and down the hallway, but as soon as he made it to the door of the Moon Queen's study, Darien, without even knocking, opened the unlocked door and slammed it behind him, not permitting the girls' entry.

Serena heard the door lock with a click. She was very worried now. What was this all about?

"What do we do now?" she asked as they stood there.

"Simple," said Lita. "We press our ears to the door and we listen. He can't take our ability to hear away from us, now, can he?"

The Princess of Jupiter was right. Serena placed her ear to the mahogany wood and waited for Darien to get an earful from her mother.

As soon as Darien locked the door to the room, he realized how rude and disgraceful his actions were toward the Queen, not respecting her privacy in the slightest. But, he couldn't care now. (Besides, if she had wanted real privacy, she could have locked the door. He had expected to demand his way in, of course, but the Queen's trust in her staff just made things easier.)

He had to let her know the truth about her husband's death.

The Prince was quite taken aback when he noticed an oil portrait of King Julius on the opposite wall, his clean-shaven young face bright and strong with his state of regality, his General's pin and army medals gleaming on his vest, a ceremonial crown on his head, and a jewel-encrusted sword at his side. His short blond hair and deep blue eyes were indeed Serena's. Darien stared at the portrait for several seconds before he was thrown out of his trance by the angry voice of a man.

"Prince Endymion?"

The Crown Prince of Earth tore his eyes from the portrait and shifted his gaze to King Joshua, whom Darien knew to be the King of Venus. The man was perched on a love seat next to his wife, Queen Marianna.

Hmm... Darien had been unaware that King Julius and Queen Marianna were brother and sister, but as he looked at the beautiful Venusian Queen, he saw that the resemblance was almost identical.

"How dare you enter a Queen's private chambers without her consent!" King Joshua growled.

He stood up, ready to throw the young man out, but Queen Serenity rose from her position in the armchair and spoke.

"Calm yourself, Joshua," she said. "I'm sure the Prince has a good explanation as to why he would barge in here unannounced." She said the last part with warning in her voice, as though daring Darien to say anything to the contrary.

"Y-yes, Your Majesty," he stuttered slightly, knowing that he could not simply blurt the secret that he had just learned out. No one would believe him then, so he began his story slowly. "I-I've just come from visiting Thion, the sex trader who was jailed many years ago."

Serenity blinked, looking as though she did not understand the importance of such a visit. "Yes? What of him?"

"Are you aware that he's dying? Of cancer?" Darien asked.

The Moon Queen shook her head. "No," she replied. "I don't preoccupy myself with prisoners."

"Even if he murdered your husband?"

He hadn't meant for it to sound so harsh, nor had he expected it to come flying from his mouth, but it had.

Serenity's eyes widened and her face paled. Darien noticed her flinch. Queen Marianna let out a small gasp. The two women then looked at each other, but Darien didn't understand what it meant.

"What?" Joshua walked over to the Crown Prince of Earth with great speed. "What are you talking about?"

"His daughter and my brother visited him just before my brother's arrest, and Michael told me that he had a message for Queen Serenity," Darien explained in a rush. "I was worried. I thought it might have been a threat of some kind, so I went to talk with him, and he told me everything! I mean, I didn't believe him at first. I thought he was lying or that he had gone mad, but then I realized that this was his last confession...of sorts. He didn't want to take it to his grave because he wanted to gloat about it, to—to slap everyone in the face, to laugh about it, knowing that there was nothing anyone could do now that he's dying!"

Darien began to pace around the room, frantically trying to remember everything that the man had told him.

"He was a microbiologist, and he said that he—he found a bacteria in the mountains of—of Saturn, I think he said. He tested it on rats. It caused fever and bleeding and seizures—and—and—" he racked his brain to try to remember the other symptoms so that the Queen could verify them "—I can't remember the rest, but does any of it sound familiar?"

But, as he stopped his pacing to look at the others in the room with him, he noticed that both Queens had tears running down their faces. Now, Darien understood what their initial shared look had been about. They had suspected that their dear Julius had been murdered, but there had been no proof. Not until now.

Serenity nodded and sat back down in her chair, defeated. "We knew," she said, putting her hand over her mouth, as if to stifle her tears, but it was no use. "We knew someone had done it, but there was no evidence, no proof. But, we knew that it couldn't have been a natural death."

Then, almost out of nowhere, Darien heard the sound of a loud scream from behind the door and knew that Serena was listening.

Serenity sniffed and let out a long sigh.

"Let her in." The Moon Queen commanded as if she were addressing a servant. "She has a right to hear."

She remembered how much Julius had suffered during the last month of his life. It was a time that she wanted nothing more than to forget. He had once been such a vibrant young man with such a promising future as King and father, but now, to see him lying in bed, unable to move, in so much pain, it was more than she could bear.

The doctors had done everything they could to save him, but it was no use. They had given him all the medicine in the Galaxy, it seemed: potions for tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and pneumonia, which he vomited; vaccinations and antibodies for typhus, influenza, septicemia, kidney disease, and meningitis, all of which his fever burned away almost as soon as the needles were removed from his body. As a last resort, they inserted a catheter into his penis in hopes of flushing out the bacteria through the expulsion of infected urine and blood.

Finally, Serenity elected to taking matters into her own hands. She knew that if she used the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal that she could save him, but that, too was a dead end, for Julius refused to allow her to use it. She remembered the conversation that they had had the day before he passed.

"I've sent word to Marianna," she told him, as she sat down on their bed and took his hand in hers. "She's on her way."

"Good," he whispered, his eyes closed. "It won't be long now."

"Julius..." she whispered, tears in her eyes. "I don't understand...why won't you let me use the Crystal to heal you?"

His eyes opened slowly and, blinking blood out of them, he looked at her sternly. "You understand perfectly well," he breathed, every word he spoke causing him pain. "I've told you. The Crystal prolongs life and it heals, but not without dire consequences. If you were to use it, I would be well again, yes, but you would die, our child would die, and it would alter the lives of everyone in the Solar System."

He tightened his grip on her hand with what little strength he had. "No," he said. "You will not use the Crystal for me. I am only one man, Serenity, and my life is nothing compared to the life of our child, of our people. There may indeed come a time where you must use it, but I tell you that now is not that time...I've accepted my fate."

Serenity began to sob and kissed his trembling hand. "But, I can't lose you!"

"And you won't," he said weakly. "When you look upon our child's face, you'll see me. I'll always be there for you. It's a promise I'll never break..."

And to her surprise, he smiled. "I love you."