Jessica's Point of View

In my dream, I was Princess Serenity in my room on the moon. A boy with silver hair was sitting on my bed with me, and we each had a wayfinder in our hands. "There's a legend that on a world far away from here, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit, and when you eat it, you form an unbreakable connection, and when you carry charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You'll always find your way back to each other," The boy explained.

"Next time, you need to bring me the fruit. It's in the world you were sent to, right? That's how you know the legend. Can you bring it for me, please?" I begged.

"I can try, Princess, but Mother would not be happy about it," The boy sighed.

"Oh, come on, she wouldn't mind. Please?" I pleaded.

"I will do my best," The boy assured me.

"I wish you could be here all the time, Xay," I commented.

"I wish so, too, sister, but mother is still furious with me. I am only able to visit here for your sake," Xehanort sighed.

When I woke up, Xemnas was sitting in a chair next to my bed, watching me. I didn't feel as bad as I did before falling asleep, but I was still in pain. I grabbed the bottle of elixir and gulped it down. My body healed quickly, but the mental scars caused by my dream haunted me. "How are you feeling?" Xemnas asked.

"I would feel a lot better if I hadn't just dreamed about Xehanort being my brother," I grumbled.

"You had a memory, then?" Xemnas inquired, but I only glared in response. Xemnas placed his hand on mine. "Serenity..."

"Don't call me that. Nothing has changed," I snapped. Xemnas pulled away, and I let out a sigh. "Look, I meant what I said before. I'm not going to fight you anymore. I'll keep going on missions if that's what you want. I really don't have the energy to fight anymore."

"I'm sorry it came to this," Xemnas sighed.

"Sorry doesn't fix this, Xehanort. You're not even sorry for the right reasons," I huffed.

"You know my name, and it isn't Xehanort," Xemnas remarked.

"Irony at its finest," I scoffed.

"I suppose you're right. Fine. I'll stop calling you Serenity," Xemnas agreed.

"And I'll mostly stop being a brat," I added.

"Impossible," Xemnas stated.

"Yeah, you're right. I make no promises," I smirked.

"I know you don't understand, but I promise you that everything I'm doing now will benefit us both in the long run. I need you to trust me," Xemnas pleaded.

"At what cost?" I questioned. He didn't reply. "Fine. I'll play things your way for now."

"Good girl." Xemnas praised me before kissing the top of my head. "Things will get better. I promise." I knew better than to believe him. Things would only get worse. I just didn't want to fight it anymore. Xemnas left my room.

I decided to go to the Grey Area to wait for the other members to get back. Saix was sitting on a couch looking over some paperwork. "Hey," I greeted.

"Hey? Is that all you can say to me?" Saix grumbled.

I plopped on the couch next to him and leaned on him. "Thank you, Saix. It turned out he was only grabbing an elixir for me to drink." When Xemnas had left, I wasn't sure what he would do. I was afraid he would punish me further. Saix came to check on me, saw the Dusk cleaning up the mess, and immediately asked me what had happened. Saix came up with the idea to pretend to yell at me so that if Xemnas came back with a new form of punishment, he would think twice since Saix was already there scolding me.

"Are you feeling better now, then?" Saix asked.

"Yes. I'll be honest, I didn't expect you to help me out like that," I mentioned.

"I would say that beating you physically until you can't even keep a potion down is overkill and beyond what I'm willing to tolerate. I should have listened to Axel," Saix commented.

"Why? What did Axel say?" I wondered.

"He was just worried about the way Xemnas has been treating you. I brushed him off at the time," Saix explained.

"But you don't think so, now?" I brought up.

"No. What he did was above and beyond what I believe is justified. I'm relieved you are alright. Jessica, please stop provoking him. If you don't, it's only going to get worse," Saix tried.

"I'm done for now. You don't have to be concerned about me. I can't fight him anymore. Everything is going back to normal tomorrow," I sighed.

"That is good to hear. Then perhaps everyone will stop loitering in the castle to gossip about you," Saix mused. Hearing him say that hurt. Everything seemed to circle back to people not getting their work done. I thought it was because Axel was dead, and so he threw himself into his work, but it started to seem as though he wasn't going to go back to the way things were.

I stood up. "You've changed, Isa." I walked back to my room, stopping briefly in Axel's room to collect Luna. So long as I played by Xemnas's rules, I didn't see any reason to hide Luna from him. "Did you know that Xehanort was my- Serenity's brother?"

"I don't understand. I don't remember him. How could that be?" Luna asked.

"I don't know, but there had been a series of events that definitely triggered a memory of him. Extreme trauma, I suppose. I just had a terrible time with Xemnas, and it was so awful, Luna. He- he finally broke me. There's no fight left in me. I'm just going to do what I'm told from now on," I shuddered.

"We could always leave to find the other Sailor Guardians. Perhaps one of them knows what happened with Xehanort," Luna suggested.

"Luna, I can't. Not yet. I can't," I muttered.

"We cannot put it off forever, but if you insist," Luna agreed.