The Taskforce had accomplished its special mission and was back on its way home, with a detour to Coruscant.

After delivering the biological data carrier Crystal Tokyo was already getting ready for the celebration of his vicegeral ruler.

Not that the King of Crystal Tokyo was in a mood for it.

"Can't we just have a dinner, just the two of us? Preferably at the end of the world."

Usagi and Mamoru were in their quarters, Mamoru just had finished the red tape on his desk and was about to head out to the bridge, when his wife had stopped him and told him about the schedule for his birthday festivities.

"Mamo-Chan. You know that I would love to do that but you also know that as King of Crystal Tokyo we have to celebrate your birthday in public. Especially in times like these."

Mamoru checked the seat of his uniform in the mirror in their small dressing room, while Usagi was in the next room.

"You know that sounded exactly like something I would say."

She came into the room and pulled her arms around his upper body from behind.

"And it always works with me, doesn't it? So it's just right that I try it too."

A small smile hushed over his lips and he pulled his arms around hers.

"Fine, I'll go with the parade. And the tea in the afternoon. But no ball in the evening, I don't think it's the time for parties that could be avoided anyways."

Usagi's smile ebbed away and she pressed herself against her husband.

"I understand that. No celebration in the evening, got it." She leaned in and kissed his cheek. "But maybe we can manage to do something together in the evening. Just the two of us."

And with that the smile was back on both of their faces.

Some hours later, it was the equivalent of afternoon on board the Eternal, Mamoru had rounded up the other guys of the Royal Court for a coffee in the officer's mess, at a secluded but quite large table.

The last that joined the table were Yuichiro and Owen, both had been training with the Commandos.

The heads of Haruka and the other men on the table were focused on Mamoru who was absently staring into the black void that was the content of his cup of coffee.

Moments elapsed without the young king saying a word.

Heads then turned to Artemis, who was sitting on Mamoru's right, but he only shrugged.

Yuichiro motioned with head that Artemis should ask him but the white haired's admiral eyes widened and he shook his head before he used his hand to motion at Haruka, after all she was the only other royalty on the table.

Heads turned to her and she rolled her eyes before she let out a deep breather.

"Mamoru?"

The one spoken to twitched, almost spoiling some coffee and looked at Haruka with big eyes.

"Sorry. I was preoccupied with something else. Are we complete?"

Yuichiro and SunTzu exchanged a skeptical look, that was very unusual behavior for the always so attentive.

Mamoru noticed the dumbfounded looks at him and sighed.

"Sorry… As you know my birthday is in two days and as regent this means it needs to be celebrated at least partly in public."

His voice dropped and he let out an even bigger sigh.

"I'm really not in the mood for it I have to confess. Why there should be a celebration when we lost so many good individuals this year."

Sheepish glances, chin scratching and looking away befell the others at the table, all of them except for one.

"Your Majesty, Sir. If I may say something to that topic?"

All heads turned to Owen.

"If someone can say something about this topic then it's you, Sergeant Davies."

"T-thank you. As you all know I was personally affected by our losses… but I think celebrating the birthday of our king is something that we can look up to. Back in the BAF it was a honor to be part of the parade for her Majesty, the Queen. And to us, it always meant, although we lost some good guys, we still endured. And that our sacrifices didn't went unseen."

Mamoru fell into a thinker pose for a moment.

"Owen is right. And I think this is the difference between Sol and Crystal Tokyo and other armed forces. We know that our rulers care, especially when we loose someone. Speaks for you and Kitten." Haruka replied before Mamoru could say something.

"It's also a good way to let the rest of the world know, that we are still there."

Mamoru took a deep breather. "Thank you. To all of you. If it wouldn't be for the need to resupplenish after that last fight I'd rather go and see for one of the fronts to see where we can help but I guess something are just mandatory."

"We wouldn't make much of a difference anyways, you heard about it, the important battles involve dozens of ships nowadays." He paused for a moment and on his face was the look of empathy. "I'll take the planning of the parade." Artemis said and then looked at Yuichiro and SunTzu. "Guess the beards gotta go, Gentlemen."

SunTzu gaze immediately fell to the ground so nobody would see his annoyed face, while Yuichiro rolled his eyes and both sighed loud.

The rest of the trip to Earth was more or less eventless, at least when it came to combat.

Somehow, given that it was for the crown and the reputation of Crystal Tokyo and his troops, Setsuna could come to terms with SunTzu having to shave his beard off. Not that she didn't joke about it, asking him if he had seen his bigger, non-teenager brother after he had come out of the bathroom, freshly shaved.

To make up, at least a bit, SunTzu performed with the band of Haruka, Hotaru and Yuichiro that night again, after Venus had setup Karaoke for the warmup to the King's birthday.

Although he still wasn't too sure about his voice SunTzu did his best as he sang Survivor's "Is this Love" and to his joy and delight Setsuna didn't flee this time. Instead she immediately walked up after the song and gave him a long kiss, much to the played annoyance of Haruka and Hotaru, which went under in the cheering and whooing of the other attendants when Setsuna took her kiss.

In the evening before Mamoru's birthday, August 2nd, Taskforce Sol arrived back at their base.

With a small detour over to his place, and a good chance to finally drive out his supersportscar again, SunTzu went to the Meiou's household, knowing very well, that his girlfriend wanted to make sure he was looking flawless in his Taskforce Sol dress uniform tomorrow.

Back before he and the other pilots had gotten their orders for the parade from Artemis on the Eternal.

He had his hopes up that he would participate as pilot but both he and Hotaru were ordered to march in the parade, along Haruka. Upon hearing this Yuichiro began to laugh, but he stopped immediately after hearing that he two would march in the parade and not, as he had thought, stay next to Rei.

"I'll help you train how to properly march in formation, Captain." Owen had then announced with a big grin.

SunTzu and Haruka were happy that they hadn't forgotten how to properly walk in formation. To SunTzu's delight, and as moral support not that he would have admitted it, Setsuna joined them for the training.

The four Guardians were done within a few hours, Yuichiro, officially Captain of the Royal Guard with special assignment and Grandknight, who only had been marching in formation once, when Kenji und Ryo had been appointed into the Order of Knights of Crystal Tokyo as Knight Scholars, stayed most of the remaining time of the way back.

One hour before the parade the troops began to assemble and started to get in their respective formations.

The three pilots would march in a smaller formation, made up of officers of the Taskforce. SunTzu was more than happy that Lieutenant Colonel Meiou would march right in front of him.

All Knights of the Kingdom, Kenji and Ryo would march in the small formation of the Royal Intelligence and Yuichiro within a formation of the guard, had their swords on their belts.

It was a warm but not too hot summer day with clear blue skies, as if the sun itself was greeting the young King.

Mamoru would take the salute, alongside his wife, daughter, Admiral, Head of Court, Sailor Venus, the Senator, the chancellor, the head bureaucrat and the Commander of the Royal Guard, all of them based on a tribune in front of the main entrance of the Crystal Palace, so that it was possible for the citizens of Crystal Tokyo and visitors to observe the spectacle as well.

As always security was high but covert, lead by the second in command of the Guard and Agent Smith.

The parade was opened with a surprise for Mamoru, first his wife took the microphone and opened the parade, the love she had for him was audible for everyone as she praised her husband and his doings, letting the world know that he was the best ruler, father and husband one could have, and then Artemis took the microphone and in front of the guests and tens of thousands of spectators thanked Mamoru for being a king that was fully behind his troops and for being a good friend.

And that wasn't everybody, as first the Chancellor and then the Senator followed with eulogies.

A visibly moved King Endymion, dressed in his white regal clothes just like his wife and daughter, but wearing is sword on his side, then gave his thanks. To his beloved wife and daughter, his friends, all the people that congratulated him and supported him and last but not least, he thanked his troops. From Admiral Artemis to the lowest ranks, he gave his deepest gratitude in his name and the name of the crown.

The crowd was still cheering when Endymion let the parade commence.

The first formations were made up of the loyal Royal Guard, with it's embedded platoons walking in the front, it's hover tanks in the middle and then came the guardists which were doing duty on Earth. It was the smallest group as most of them were in service today to protect the kingdom.

The Guardists were wearing their white parade uniforms and Motoki, also clad in his, couldn't help but to be proud next to his friend and ruler.

Next unit in the parade was from a foreign country, substitutional for the US-Marines that stayed back on Fondor to defend it, a platoon of Marines in their Dress Blues marched in the parade to honor their fellow missing Devil Dogs.

Following the US-Troops was a secondment from the 1er REC of the French Foreign Legion, the unit that had fought so brave and hard alongside Sol on Saleucami.

As he did with the Marines before, SunTzu, and here Michiru as well, had visited their French brothers-in-arms at their staging point, shortly before Michiru had to leave for the airbase to get to the Voyager.

The next visitors were Japanese troops and this time those were openly friendly towards Crystal Tokyo.

Right behind them also was a detachment of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

The last delegation from regular Tokyo and Japan was from the Tokyo Fire Department, as some civilian services found their way into the parade as well.

Right after old Tokyo's firefighters followed two fire companies of Crystal Tokyo and behind them were a detachment of different police officers from all over Crystal Tokyo, led by Superintendent Saori Kobayashi, an old friend of Mamoru and Motoki.

After that it was time for the Taskforce to march up.

Starting with the First Bataillon the units walked past the tribune and the palace and saluted their Rulers and Admiral, with Sol Brigade and the other Bataillons following suit.

Eyecatcher for most of the spectators were the heavy military vehicles, technology usually not seen on Earth.

After fourth Battalion, a darling of the public, meaning that a lot of the refugees from Rago had come to see the parade as well, the crews of the Capital ships and pilots which didn't participate in flying followed.

Next were the specialized units, like the Engineers, Scouts and the medical units, right before Serenity's Wolves, except Team Four who was on duty, got all the attention.

Right behind the Wolves marched the two Knight Scholars and Ami, overlooking everything from a window above the tribune couldn't help but giggle when she her husband and his best friend strutting past the Royals, greeting their King and then the audience, both of them effortlessly cool.

The last group were the various officers' group, lead by Captain Santos.

As SunTzu marched past Mamoru he could see that Mamoru's mood had shifted drastically to what it had been on the Eternal on the way home.

Although he wasn't exactly smiling he seemed happy and moved. Usagi was holding his hand, leaning into him, saying something to him with a smile.

When they had all passed an flypast of AICA, on her own, the Voyager and four craft of all the squadrons followed, with the Royal Lambda-Shuttle in the middle of all the snubs.

A terrific ending for the parade and it made the crowd cheer loudly again, as the starships boomed past them.

It had been a few hours until the parade had ended and King Endymion had withdrawn into his private chambers, more precisely his workroom. His bad mood was gone and although he still found it a bit embarrassing to have such a show put up just for him, it still felt great to see the genuine respect his soldiers had for him. And not to forget the kind words he had heard before from his friends and his wife.

A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts and before he could tell the one who knocked to come in the door already opened and revealed his smiling wife. She was the only one who would enter the room without him telling to do so and it was just one of those small things he loved so much about her.

"Are you ready for our dinner, Mamo-Chan?"

"Usako."

Her smile grew even more when she saw his happy face.

"I am ready." He nodded.

"Great. But first I have a surprise for you."

Mamoru tilled his head and looked at the love of his live and the next one.

To his surprise she produced the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou, the Silver Crystal and activated it.

Mamoru got up from his seat and walked up to her but just as he was standing he noticed that they had changed the location.

He had stopped mid motion and looked around, the ruins of once grand buildings surrounded them, the ground had a grayish color.

"This is…"

"The Moon. The ruins of the Silver Millennium."

"Usako, this will tire you out."

"I don't care. You wanted to be at the end of the world and I wanted to let you know, that I'm going even further with you.l

He closed the gap between them and their hands met on their chests.

"Usako."

"Here we kissed for the first time, millennia ago."

And what followed was a kiss, speaking for millennia of unbreakable, deepest love.

When their lips parted, Mamoru used a finger to gently turn Usagi's head to look in his eyes.

"Usagi, my Queen, my love, my everything. I love you to the Moon and back."

"I love you Mamo-Chan."

And then her stomach grumbled to let everybody know that it demanded food and both couldn't help but to laugh out loud.