We do not own "Sailor Moon" nor any of the characters.
"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Chapter 13
"Just Love I Won't Forget"
Soft orchestral music plays in the background as the wedding guests begin to drift off. Everyone speaks their farewells to the happy couple, wishing them the best their new life together has to offer. Darien and Serena make ready to leave themselves, eager to get an early jump on their honeymoon, which was long in coming.
After her parents had kissed and cried over them both, embracing Darien warmly as their new 'son,' Serena was ready to bid farewell to the rest of her dearest friends. But before the close-knit group parted, the Moon Princess finds a couple of them giving her just a few last minute "tips."
"Be careful where you eat." Lita honestly warns her best friend. "Remember how sick we all got at that resort last time we went to the hot springs."
"Yes, Lita." Serena obediently nods as the hobby cook gives her shorter best friend a quick peck on the cheek.
And then in a conspiratorial whisper, her wedding planner adds in Serena's ear, "Lizz is going to sleep over with me tonight. So, Andrew's going to drive us home in his new car! He calls it 'Kamekichi" after his pet turtle I told you about. Guess because the car's green. He even said he'd let me drive it sometimes! After he teaches me how to drive, that is! Exciting, huh?" In a flurry of words she had gleaned from this wonderful night's conversations with the medical student, Lita giggles, happily leaving in said green turtle car with the pleasant brother and sister, who already had come to say goodbye to Serena and Darien.
"Bye Bye!" Mina simply waves from across the room, seemingly more interested in her escort, whom she had obviously appropriated to take her home as she rushes out of the hall on Ken's arm.
"Don't make a show of yourself at the hot springs, pigging and klutzing out, okay? You don't want people up there to think all of us here in the city are like you, Serena." Rei can't stop herself from taking a few final snipes, her strange way of expressing her true affection for her dearest friend.
"Rei..." Serena frowns at her ill-tempered buddy, believing she would at least be nice today of all days.
"Just kidding! You rocked that wedding dress already, so you can eat all you want now, Serena! She has my permission, Darien! Good luck!" Rei's pinched face then turns into a gorgeous smile that she includes her former crush in. Darien nods back in full understanding of how close Rei and Serena really were to be always at such odds with one another.
A quick hug and a kiss later, the sharp tongued temple priestess was running off at the mouth again, a hen-pecked Chad at the butt of her targeted complaints this time. But as the two of them walked out the door, when she thought no one was looking, Rei takes Chad's arm, for once contented with what she presently had in him.
"You going, too, Amy?" Serena indulges her curiosity about her quiet genius friend, interested in her reawakening romance with her longtime sweetheart, Greg.
"Oh, well, it was a great party, Serena. But Greg's going back home early tomorrow morning, so we thought we'd just go to the cafe for coffee and talk a bit tonight." Amy whispers shyly as Greg comes up to the newlyweds, as well.
"I guess you two have a lot to talk about." Serena was never one to hold her tongue as she prods the meek couple a bit, making Amy blush.
But not Greg this time, when the quiet young man surprisingly actually speaks.
"Yes, we do." His confidence seemed to be slowly building, as he and Amy say their farewells and walk out together, side by side.
"I hope you two lucky people enjoy yourselves at the Springs." Michelle sidles up to them, sleek Robin Starr right at her puffy dress side. Something in her tone, as always with Michelle, added a little bit more to what she actually said.
"Not to worry about that." Darien was a pro at matching Michelle's flirtatious wit, his arm around Serena, closing in more, making her giggle at his touch.
"Robin and I are off to the opera. 'La Boheme' is premiering tonight." Michelle's upper-class breeding shines through. "Would you care to join us, Amara?" Michelle pauses, seeming to think Sayer, though admittedly quite dashing in his designer suit—which someone of refined taste had chosen for all Three Lights—would still be out of place in such a sophisticated event as a opera. But, feeling generous, she offers anyway.
"Sayer?" Michelle tentatively adds, turning to him with the invitation.
"Do they sing any good tunes?" He asks, innocently enough, only vaguely knowing that in operas, people sing all over the place.
"Tunes?" The word rolls off Michelle's cultured tongue distastefully, Alex chuckling at how this man could get she and her cousin both easily riled.
"Uhhh...no, Michelle, I think we'll pass on that." Alex says simply, taking control of the conversation. "I'm sure we can find some other diversion more to our liking." The golden soldier adds with a sideways glance at Sayer, whose eyebrows raise at her not too subtle words.
"Ooh, what's a guy supposed to do with an open invitation like that?" He asks rhetorically, an amorous smile pasted on his face.
"Enter freely and at your own discretion." Darien calmly interjects, as one who has dealt with Alex in the past and could not imagine any man crazy enough to want to take the tough female head on.
"I could say the same to you." Sayer's sharp wit bites Darien back, a mischievous grin aimed at Serena. Alex rolls her eyes at that male macho thing the two rivalrous dark haired men had going on.
"What do you boys mean?" Serena's wide-eyed naiveté was obvious.
"You'll find out soon, dear!" Michelle gives Serena's shoulders a squeeze. "We'd better be leaving, don't want to miss the first act." She attaches herself to Robin's svelte arm.
"Princess." Robin lowers his bewitching mint green eyes, deferring to Serena. "It's been good seeing you again." He genuinely smiles that beautiful rare smile as he and Michelle leave, hand in hand, making a darlingly cute couple.
"My pretty girl…" Her turn, Alex runs her fingers through Serena's long yellow 'spaghetti' hair affectionately. "Don't let him get away with everything." Her advice comes through in a teasing smile.
"I won't." Serena's time with Alex had given her a bit more backbone in the dealing with men department. "Alex?" Serena looks to her tall friend seriously. "Take care of him." She whispers, so only the two of them could hear as the men next to them suddenly eye the pair suspiciously.
"What do you think they're talking about, Dar?" Sayer folds his arms, considering Serena and Alex's heads bent together.
"Secrets already, Mrs. Shields?" Darien looks to his new wife with a smile.
"No secrets!" Serena giggles guiltily. "Just saying goodbye." She looks up at Alex, whose smile for her never wavers. Alex knew expressly who that 'him' was whom her sweet princess was referring to.
"All right. We'll buy that, this time." Sayer winks one eye at Darien, a familiar smile on his face.
"Meatball…" His eyes shine at her, bright and warm.
"It's not goodbye!" Serena beams up at him, a hopeful expression on her face that, even after her week long honeymoon away from Tokyo with Darien, the Three Lights would still be here when she returned.
"No...I don't think it is." Sayer answers, a bit vaguely for a moment, his eyes flitting to Alex.
"What do you say, Terry?" Darien brings the last of the couples into their conversation circle, though neither Susan nor Terry seemed to mind being left out unnoticed. Susan was hanging on Terry's arm and he pressed her to his chest, the two of them lost in their own world.
"Mr. Shields." Terry suddenly realizes he was being spoken to.
"'Darien,' Terry, 'Darien.'" He stresses again, but actually enjoying the man's politeness for a pleasant change. Terry nods, smiling.
"Farewell, Mrs. Serena." He amends his accustomed respectful address to the freshly upgraded to 'married' blonde bride. "Darien," Terry concedes, nodding his head to them both respectfully.
"Prince, Princess." Susan breaks her silence, her voice reverent. "I wish you much future happiness."
"For you, too, Susan." Serena leans forward and up to kiss Susan on the cheek, elated that her lonely friend had finally found someone to share her heart with.
And that goes for Terry, too. The generous hearted girl thinks as the taller than ever before young man then kisses her hand sweetly. Soon thereafter, Terry and Susan leave the room.
"Just us chickens left." Sayer teases, giving Darien's shoulder a not-so-tender punch, which the older dark haired young man did not appreciate. "See you around, Meatball. Got a hot date!" He winks boldly to Alex, popping Serena playfully on the nose before he rushes to the door, holding it open for his hesitant female partner.
"This is NOT a date!" Alex explodes, her voice bellowing across the room at him as embarrassment tinges a slight red across her high-bone cheeks.
"Kitten." She turns back to Serena, whose statement before still remained unanswered. "No promises." Alex smirks with an insolent air about her. But the look in her eye told a different story to Serena as she watches the two defiant, warring souls stride out the door into the moonlit night, the last of her friends' gone.
That left only she and Darien behind, which sounded pretty good to both of them right at the moment, as the just married couple melt into one another's arms under the gleaming moon beams...
"Do you think the party's over yet?" A pajama wearing Rini asks her silent friend as she puts down her brush on the dresser, just finishing undoing the cones on her candy pink head. Rini Shields hums happily, pleased with the day's events, as she begins brushing Diana's furry coat. Proud Luna looks on, cat smiling at the successful wedding to the Prince of the Earth, of her lifelong Moon Princess charge.
"I don't know." Tara feels her mind adrift, finding it hard to focus on Rini's happy chatter. I can't get what I said to Susan out of my head. Tara holds her throbbing skull, a pitiful look on her sad face as she recalls the harsh words she had shouted at her docile guardian.
"What's wrong, Tara?" Rini jumps off the bed to where Tara was sitting on the floor, sorting through her night clothes.
"It's nothing, Rini. I'm all right, just tired." Tara holds back from even her closest friend, not wanting anyone to know just how mean she had been to poor Susan. But I had a right to be mean! The little devil on her shoulder whispers in Tara Tomoe's ear, justifying her actions. She's using Terry cruelly. I can't let anyone hurt him like that!
"You can tell me anything, right, Tara? We're best friends forever." Seeing the look on the pink-haired cherub faced angel at her side makes Tara feel remorse for her words once again.
"Rini..." Tara begins, thinking that if she told Rini all her troubles maybe she could fix everything all right again. Just like she always has for me. Tara remembers fondly. But before she could continue, the two girls jump at the noisy clattering thunder right beneath their feet.
"Rini!" Sammy's high-pitched, muffled whine through the ceiling calls from the first floor all the way up to the attic loudly. Wondering what could be wrong, Rini races down the stairs, Tara close on her heels, until they reach the source of the ruckus in the kitchen. There, seated in the middle of a pile of pots and pans, silverware and all sorts of dishes, not to mention several different kinds of cookies and cakes, was little RiRi, bearing a scared look of shock on her face.
"What happened!?" Rini yells at Sammy, flying to her tiny sister. Rini's responsibility for her was a direct order from her hesitant parents to whom Rini swore up and down before their time travel journey here, assuring of the midget's safety.
"I don't know!" Sammy shouts back. "I was just...just..." his cheeks flash bright red for a moment, as if embarrassed to reveal what he was doing.
"Just what?!" Rini, the little sergeant scoops up her frightened, but thankfully unharmed baby sister, whose eyes threatened to open the floodgates as the shouting match continues. "Look at this mess! What is Irene-Mama going to say?!" Rini was so angry she almost spills the future beans.
"I was just making some tea and cakes for you two..." Sammy finally admits in a trailing mumble, after being backed into a corner, his eyes avoiding Tara's. "But then the little terror—who you were supposed to be watching, Rini," Sammy throws at his 'little sister,' "came in and ruined everything!"
"Well, what're we going to do, now? They'll be home soon!" Shaking her fist at Sammy, Rini panics, glancing around at the utter chaos mess of dishware and foodstuffs splashed on every wall, chair and shelf. All with one chocolate pudding faced tiny miscreant plopped right in the middle of it all.
"Don't worry, Rini. If we work together, I'm sure we can clean it up in time." Feeling sympathy for a guilty faced Sammy, Tara's sweet voice says calmingly, smoothing over the situation as she picks up a pan lid.
After RiRi was mopped up and safely deposited back in her bed, the three children, Luna, and Diana, along with a dazed Artemis—who was found cowering under one of the pot lids he was clanged over one hearing loss time too many—hurriedly begin cleaning up.
One final cup on the floor, Tara reaches for it, and finds Sammy with a similar idea holding onto the other end. "It was very nice of you to think of us before." Tara smiles shyly at him, touched by the young boy's thoughtfulness.
"Oh, well, I..." Sammy stumbles at her pretty purple eyes. "I just messed it all up anyway." He sighs, feeling dejected as he lets go of his end of the cup.
"That doesn't matter. After the first shock, actually it was a bit funny, seeing RiRi with all of that cake on her face, buried in the pots and pans. Not to mention, poor Artemis trapped in that big copper one. I don't know how that little girl lifted it, never mind slam it shut on the poor kitty's head!" Tara giggles sweetly, her old self for a moment again, as she tenderly strokes Artemis' banged up and 'x' shaped bandaged noggin.
"Yeah, I guess it was." Sammy then chuckles along as the two of them join forces to wash up the dirty mountain of dishes. Tara was laughing for the first time since she arrived at the Hart residence, and Rini smiles, too.
"Guess you're really not all that worthless, Sammy…" The pink cherub mutters under her breath to the wet mop in her hand, giving her 'brother' some new respect in these early years before he became her 'uncle.'
Finding the moonlight and the flowing night air breeze inviting, Terry decided to stroll through the park with Susan on his arm. Quietly contented with each other, soft caresses and gentle kisses along the way, Terry uncharacteristically lost all track of time. He looks up to the heavens and the starry sky he was a part of to determine the hour.
The night is still young. The tall, handsome young man muses to himself quixotically as he leads his lady through the deserted, tree-lined park. Just one more stroll through and then we'll start home.
At the thought of their returning home, alone, together, Terry Starr feels something fluttering inside of him, his face turning warm. He gazes down on the dark head pressed against his chest, her beautiful eyes closed in total submission, as Susan allows him to lead her where he will.
With my hand snaking around her lovely bare shoulders...The intellectual in Terry was ashamed to find he couldn't keep himself from these earthy thoughts. Conduct yourself now, man! He shakes himself to be less instinctual.
Stroking her hair instead, the gentleman guides Susan down the well-kept paths in the beautiful park, as the stars look down on him. Gazing back up at them, Terry can't help but feel a tinge of sadness. I know my brothers and I must return to our planet, but...I don't want to leave you anymore. I can not just forget this you and I now.
...If only, Susan...if only...
Indulging herself in this ephemeral fantasy world, Susan opens her eyes languidly, wanting each moment of time this night to pass as slowly as possible. The stars greet her, flickering like distant candles, alight as if just for her. How beautiful the stars are. How dazzling in the night sky...
But tomorrow the sun will rise and these stars will fade away. Her dreamy mood was cruelly extinguished by her guarded soul. What am I to do? Her heart breaking, tears spring to her eyes and Susan can no longer withstand the forces lashing from without and within. But turning to face him, Susan looks up, desperately wanting to lose herself in his eyes, if only once more.
Gazing into her troubled and sad, magenta orbs, so beautiful, so breathtaking, Terry feels a song rising in his chest. The music she has brought to him he suddenly wants to share with her, to serenade her with the love he has discovered for her. Music and poetry composed the best way Terry Starr could express his true feelings.
"Here you are, this dream of mine still."
Terry takes Susan's slender hands in his as he sings to her directly from his heart, as his thoughts contemplate his deep throated music. Susan darling, you are my dream.
"Scattered pieces we're sharing together."
I'll pick up those pieces, hold it all together, no matter what it takes. His gorgeous eyes send these sweet messages to Susan, who feels her heart tearing apart at the seams with every sweet word.
"Complete only, if I hear your voice." The tall, mahogany haired young man touches her trembling cheek softly.
Susan, tell me what's wrong. My love will brush it all away.
"Our friendship looks like it's becoming more, with all that's within me, I'll protect and hold onto this!" Terry squeezes Susan's hands in his even tighter and her eyes fill with more tears as the verse of his acapella song moves to its easy on the ear bridge.
"I need to fight this leaving you, because now only..." Softly, tenderly his strains of love flow, creating a melody so beautiful that Susan longs for time to stop for her, right here, right now. She was sure she could love no stronger, no greater than that she felt at this timeless moment for this singularly wonderful man. "I want to take you into my arms."
"Once in a lifetime could I have found my one you!"
The tears stream down her face as his heartfelt, spontaneously musical poetry speaks directly to her soul, stunning her with the sincerity in his eyes, as his gentle hands caress her face, wiping away the tears.
My one and only you, Terry, my beloved. It will be only you for all of eternity for me. Susan kisses the strong hands pressed to her cheeks, lovingly, adoringly, and his eyes glow with an inner warmth and understanding only a fellow Sailor Guardian could comprehend.
"This love I won't forget between the two of us," Terry continues to gently, yet determinedly intoned, his heart never to leave hers, he is certain, "so clearly!"
"Coursing right through my body all the way to my fingertips." With these words sung in a hushed whisper of his passionate sentiment, Terry smiles.
Heeding his lyric, so in tune with one another, Susan kisses those fingertips, wanting so much for this fantasy to be real—stay real—forever.
But abruptly remembering herself and her station, Susan turns away. With the pain she was sure she will cause this gentle soldier, the lonesome Guardian of Time tightly shuts her tear-stained eyes, wanting to just fade away, never intending to hurt the mild mannered, gentle of spirit Star Maker.
"Don't fear the passion we feel now, though your heart cries." Terry takes hold of his lady's arms, pulling her close to his chest, it apparent in his deep voice he, too, was aching for her pain, her fear, wanting desperately to console her.
"So much it hurts." He sings softly, depicting the yearning ache within his own being for the first time in his existence. Trying to ease that distressing look in her eye, Terry needed to tell her all his romantic heart longed to say, if only just the love... "Now we're beginning, with such deep feeling."
"For inside of my heart, I long for you alone…" Holding Susan's head softly to his beating heart, Terry feels her tears' wetness through his yellow and grey suit jacket. Nonetheless, he was glad to have told her all he feels for her in prose and song, and how she will be his everything from now on.
You are everything to me, Susan, my beautiful lady. But I want to share in your sadness as well as your joys. What is it? I will promise you a lifetime and more. Terry vows to himself, wanting to calm her, to ask her, to relieve her fears. But he remembers his promises earlier to her not to pry, not to ask anymore questions. Anything you ask, my lady, I will do anything for you. The shining star of Maker closes his eyes, landing gentle kisses through Susan's dark emerald hair and on her tearful cheeks.
"Oh, what do I do?" Susan's thundering heart asks aloud to the soft breeze and the winds of time she was captive to. I have to be honest with him. He deserves so much more than that. But what else can I do? I'm in love with you, Terry Starr. I love you desperately, but...Susan pulls back, looking up through her tears into Terry Starr's crystal jeweled eyes.
And the Guardian of Pluto concludes she could no longer keep from him the sad torture behind her sorrows if she was to go on.
"Terry, there are things you don't know about me." She tries to control the overwhelming tears as she begins to explain her extremely intricate—and most demanding—role as a soldier.
"I need not know anything more, my lady." He smiles, trying to convince her of his sincerity, seen through the eyes of first, unbridled love.
"You don't understand. I'm not my own...I can't be..." Susan stumbles, trying to find the right, terribly damning words, "I'm not a normal woman."
"You are the only woman I have ever dreamed of, Susan de Venici. You are my angelic perfection, my goddess in a purple haze of splendor. That is all this unworthy mortal wishes to know for a lifetime." Terry speaks quite eloquently poetic, gripping her shoulders tenderly with the truth of his throbbing heart for her.
Trembling, Susan looks up into his caring wisteria eyes, "Terry…" She whispers, struggling for the next, correct, dissuading, dismissive line to articulate as a proper, already predisposed to be alone soldier she was trained to be since childhood.
I love you! I'm so terribly in love you! Yet her womanly mind longs to cry out these words instead, as her soul explodes with this only emotion for this incredibly gentle man before her.
His song was so beautiful, so perfect to her ears, the eternally solitary Guardian of Time could hear every sweet lyric delivered in his gorgeous tone ring throughout her adoring being, kindling the dry embers of her lonely dream...
"Susan, I truly lo—" Terry begins to pronounce his heart again without restraint, sensing in her voice and demeanor that her desired open regard for him could be possible. But Susan halts him once again, this time flinging her arms around his neck, full kissing him longingly, tragically, passionately.
Lost in the endless kiss full of intense ardor, neither one notices a dark figure spying down disdainfully on this tender moment from atop a stately oak tree in the darkened back street.
"Mimi…!" An utterly distraught man clutches a dying woman in his arms. Then he bursts into tears over his lost love's tragic end as he embraces her still form to his bosom in emotional agony.
Watching this moving scene onstage from a specially sectioned off balcony seat in the darkened opera house, Robin, engrossed in the classic opera, feels the warm touch of a feminine hand wrapping around his arm.
Sensing Michelle's overwhelming emotions intensify over the climactic scene, Robin smiles at her feminine sweetness. Moving to comfort her, without looking away from the stage—for that would be considered rude to the entire production—he strokes the lissome hand squeezing his arm affectionately.
"I'm glad we saw this together." He whispers to the woman beside him in the dark theatre, proud to share this romantic moment, relishing the fine arts of Earth he greatly admired, with such an elegant beauty, who was both artist and fine work of art herself, at his side.
"So am I." But a female voice other than he expected answers, dreamily, timidly. It was a voice familiar to Robin, but to his dismay, he finds it was not Michelle's.
Just then the opera finishes its final act and the lights in the house come up.
"What were you saying, Robin, dea—" Michelle turns, wiping her tears with a handkerchief to find Robin indeed seated next to her in the opera house where the pair had just enjoyed 'La Boheme' together silently rapt for these past two hours.
However, a strangely dressed, rail thin, pale haired female nimbly was perched upon the expansive, velvety plush opera seat's armrest hanging on his other arm.
Shocked for once that her sensitivity as a psychic failed her so grossly, to allow this person to have snuck up so intimately close upon her, the civilian form of the Sailor Soldier of Neptune jumps to her feet in a defensive stance, her temper rising as well.
"Who is this woman!?" Forgetting her societal place in this hushed setting, Michelle's raised voice echoes down into the departing crowd, who all look up in shock at this unseemly display. The sophisticate turns crimson red, dragging both Robin and the clingy woman out from the peering eyes upon the open balcony to a more secluded spot behind the curtains.
"Oh, dear. I've gotten you in trouble." The young woman in question states to Robin as she's pulled along by a livid Michelle, her wide lime-green eyes opened even wider in surprise. But her high and slightly scratchy, sweet voice had not a bit of sarcasm in it.
"Who are you!?" Michelle whispers vehemently, but not before physically removing the girl's hand attachment to Robin with angry eyes on them both.
"Well, I...I'm..." The unknown girl stumbles, and fiddles with her long, palest grey hair fixed in a single braid, suddenly nervous at Michelle's demanding tone.
"Evelyna." With a sigh, Robin inserts the known moniker for the poor girl after a long wait.
"You know her, then?" Michelle turns to Robin, a hurt, suspicious expression on her betrayed face.
"Of course, she's a student of mine from—" He starts to explain.
"And you never told me?" Michelle, on the verge of tears, feels betrayed in some way.
"What's to tell? I am her trainer on Janus. We're simply associates, Michelle." Robin declares, slightly annoyed at her quickness to distrust him. As the crowd from the other balcony loft seats moves around them on their way to the crush bar, Michelle takes both Robin and this 'Evelyna' by the arm.
"Let's go somewhere we can talk." Michelle tries to sound calmer as she maneuvers the three of them into an empty office in the front of the building. Knowing the owners of the opera house personally—her rich, overseas parents were large donors to the arts here in Japan as well as France, for her educational benefit while their daughter studied abroad—Michelle was sure they would not mind.
Taking a look at the girl now in a better light, Michelle sees Evelyna was nothing more than a slight of stature, young teenager, sixteen, perhaps seventeen years old. That, and the fact the wide mint green eyed child looked rather terrified of her at the moment.
"Now, Evelyna, that's a very pretty name." Michelle smiles at the pretty girl, really not intending to frighten her as she looks to Robin with a somewhat conciliatory glance for jumping to conclusions without inquiring first. "Forgive my rudeness before. You just...startled me." Michelle smiles coaxingly, not accustomed to anyone having the curious ability to sneak up on her sharpened mentally perceptive faculties. "My name is Michelle Moreau. If you're a friend of Robin's, then you're a friend of mine as well."
"Miss Moreau," Evelyna nods while still nervously playing with her long braid over her dreadfully thin-framed shoulder.
A pretty girl, though not very tall, she came only to Michelle's shoulders in height, no more than 4' 9" in stature. Her alien clothing was similar in style to Princess Fireball's, with flowing filmy sleeves and skirt 'petals' of a yellowish green shade. Though not half as long or elaborate, Michelle now reflects on the more practical version of the Starlights' Princess' regal, stately dress.
But there was something familiar about her, something about her wide, almond shaped eyes...
"You are from the Star Healer, as well. Aren't you?" Michelle says suddenly.
"How did you…?" Evelyna asks , her surprise evident at Michelle's keen knowledge.
"I can see it in your eyes." Michelle lightly touches the girl's cheek, suddenly feeling an almost...motherly...affection for her. "Robin has similar colored eyes." The quick-tempered Pisces smiles up at the young man with the bewitching mint green orbs in question, everything forgiven between them.
"Yes. Every inhabitant of the Star once known as Healer had these same green eyes." Evelyna answers vaguely, a sadness in her small, scratchy voice.
"Had?" Michelle feels a sense of foreboding, already regretting having asked the query out of curiosity.
"Yes." Evelyna closes her eyes with the next words, which seemed difficult to tell the sad story of without evoking ghastly memories. "Prince Robin and I are the last of our people hailing from the Star Healer. The rest were massacred when we were small children."
So that's the part of his soul Robin has still closed off to me. His painful past filled with loss. My poor baby. Michelle reaches out to Robin's mind, caressing it gently. The two of them gaze into each other's eyes, things unsaid passing between them as Robin gazes back at Michelle, unlocking the hidden doors yet closed between them.
…The roar of deafening cannon fire more akin to fierce thunder…Fearful people race to and fro through decimated streets…Terrifying screams of crying out twin stars ring across the smoke-filled air…Hand in hand, a protective couple stand defiant of an unknown enemy in defense of their frightened children…An inferno of utter chaos descends over the parents' silhouettes, resulting in bodily disintegration before the horrified twins' eyes…a now lone child shrieks in a mirrored reflection of broken bones and scorched flesh as innocent blood not his own spills down a young child's tiny arm…A blinding explosion of light and darkness clash feverishly, until that overwhelmingly warm, comforting scent of osmanthus flowers envelope the lone sensitive star…
Silent tears run down the teal haired female's cheeks freely as she tenderly caressed the silver star's selfsame arm where blood once stained years ago. Evelyna watches the pair closely, as she had been all day from a distance. Knowing from what her sixth sense told her, there was a certain indefinable link between them that went beyond a simple psychic communication.
But it was not only her uncanny sense that told the utterly smitten young woman this. It was also the stabbing ache in her heart that longed to be noticed by her fellow Healer compatriot's psychic trainer's shine.
For Evelyna believed that she, from the first moment she saw him return to their new planet of Janus, had fallen in love with the chosen Guardian of the royal house of Star Healer. The teenage girl—who Queen Melody, Princess Fireball's mother, had taken under her wing and Fireball had hidden Evelyna in stasis on Healer's dead star when the Sailor Wars reached Kinmoku—was just a year Robin's junior.
In the years since she had been reawakened to live on Janus in this era of peace, Evelyna had become infatuated with the heroic Sailor Star of Healer, who had now taken the human form of a dashing princely man since he, Star Maker and Star Fighter had returned to their distant galaxy.
Her majesty Princess Fireball had introduced us to one another, knowing that as the last two survivors of our countrymen, Robin and I would share a special bond. So I joined the training to be a soldier in the Royal Army Guard of Janus, just to be with him, though others said he was cold and unfeeling. I didn't believe them, for he has always been kind to me, teaching me on how to fully use my newfound powers, helping me develop my sixth sense that he has so cleverly mastered. But right now, that sixth sense is telling me that it's too late. Too late for me…She thinks sadly, sighing the deep sigh of a dejected teenager.
Hearing her soft exhale, Robin turns to his protégée, unaware of the hidden aspects of her secret romantic feelings for him. Evelyna's gifted, psychic mind had somehow kept this crush hidden away for over a year, despite her instructor's increasing mental prowess being far more formidable.
"Why are you here, Evelyna? Has the Princess a message for us she couldn't project to me?" Robin asks curiously, suddenly realizing she was not supposed to be here at all. He had been so wrapped up with a slighted Michelle that Robin had neglected to ask Evelyna's present reason on Earth.
"Well, I..." The silver braided young female stops in mid-sentence.
I'm so weak. She thinks meekly, confused, for this orphaned child of the star Healer's self-esteem was always low. But I don't want to do this! Truly, I don't think I should…! But...the one thing Sailor Star Healer has taught me, more important than anything else—I must complete my mission. I must stay with the mission, even when everyone else has abandoned it...
Evelyna summons her celestial power up to her fingertips. And then the slight framed female breathes in a large intake of air before she reaches her mint greenish glowing hand out towards her adored instructor's turned back...
Miles away, clear across the other side of town, a golden yellow Ferrari races through the busy streets. This part of the city was teeming with every kind of night life imaginable. Neon signs electrify the darkness as the regular Saturday crowds hurry in and out of the various nightclubs and discotheques which lined the landscape.
Considering this as she pulled her car into a particular club's parking lot, Alex herself was, nowadays, in Michelle's upper-class company most of the time, and rarely visited these sorts of places anymore. Once or twice before, her racing friends wanted her to join their victory party nightclubbing fun. But always the loner, Alex never stayed long, much preferring a date with her motorcycle than the company of anyone else.
Until Michelle.
Until now.
Unbuckling her seatbelt, Alex turns to face the dashing figure in the passenger seat. Unusually quiet during the ride here, she could sense a new shyness about the man. How cute. She smiles in the rear view mirror, letting herself go to discover new things about this suddenly fascinating, distant star, at least for a while.
But the young man's eyes were seemingly fixated on the stars above.
I wonder what he's—Alex begins to ask herself.
"Ally?" Sayer asks abruptly, breaking the silence.
"Yes?" She answers, guardedly, the solemn tone of his voice making it seem he was about to ask her something very important.
"Do you really mind that I call you 'Ally?'" He questions the nickname, the serious look on his face enough to make a cat laugh.
"Is that what you've been sitting there brooding about all this time?" She asks, incredulously.
"Yeah…mostly." His crooked smile back at her was enigmatic. Then he returns to the "pressing" subject. "I could call you 'Alex,' like everybody else does if you'd like. And 'Chelle calls you 'Amara.' What's that all about anyway? Or maybe I can think of something else to call you, or..."
"Just shut up, and get out of the car." She shakes her head at his fixated foolishness. He is strange, but I suppose he's trying to please me, in his silly way. Watching Sayer's slim body practically jump out of the vehicle, discarding his red and grey suit jacket into the leather back seat like he owned the pricey Ferrari, Alex's mind suddenly recalls something he had said earlier.
"Starr?" She was becoming more accustomed to using this shooting star's fitting last name, a real question in her mind that stretched beyond his silly banter.
"Yeah, Ally?" He responds, yanking off his tie with a flourish, throwing it casually into the open roof car, as well. Then his eyes, his deep blue eyes full of danger and curiosity, focus on her.
"Never mind." Alex changes her mind, looking away from his penetrating stare.
"C'mon! What?" Sayer pries, smiling at her encouragingly as the athlete trots in front of her. Leaning on the parked yellow sports car, his dark hair gleams just right in the moonlight as the good-looker undoes the top buttons of his shirt with agitated fingers.
"Nothing." She shakes off the question, still hesitant to be open with him, even after that thrilling song and dance they had shared. "Let's go inside." Alex pulls off her own suit jacket and ruffled tie, tossing them into her convertible's back seat on top of Sayer's.
Entering the packed, crowded discotheque, Sayer and Alex mingle their way into the room, towards an empty booth in the back of the building. Multicolored lights flash throughout the dance floor, rhythmic music blares loudly as everyone on their feet move to their own style of dance.
Ordering some drinks in the noisy forum, Sayer and Alex both simply watch the action for awhile, enjoying the liveliness of the evening. Secretly stealing glances at each other as they silently sip their drinks, both were more than a little uncertain of their standing with one another.
Is this a date? Alex asks herself the burning question she had openly denied before in front of everyone else, as she hides her shame in an orange twist. After a minute, Alex looks up to find Sayer studying her.
"Ready to blow these people's socks off, Sokova?" He asks out of nowhere, calling her by her surname in a dare as the navy haired rock star stands while gesturing to the darkened dance floor.
"Do you think they can handle it, Starr?" Alex says smugly, always ready with a witty reply, as she rises to her feet, following Sayer out into the swaying crowd. Amid the chaotic flickering of light and music, playing in true disco fashion, Alex and Sayer begin to dance, side by side in dueling fashion, much like they did at Serena's wedding.
The dramatic style and sleek movements soon captivate their fellow dancers, everyone giving the equally tall height rhythmic, equally dazzling physical build provocative and equally roguish, brazenly confident pair space in the center of the dance floor they commanded.
The lively audience applauds when the couple—after out-pacing everyone else in every genre of dance, from alternative disco to contemporary jazz to hard rock to technopop—finally makes a flourished bow exit. Before returning to their back row seats, Sayer stops at the bar to pick up some more alcoholic refreshments, leaving Alex alone at the booth.
The limbered up woman stretches her long arms as the generally vigilant guardian, caught up in another thrilling, star-lined performance, did not notice a silent figure eyeing her carefully from afar.
"They were all out of orange twists, so I just got us both these instead." He plants a tall glass in front of her as he sits down with a matching one for him on the booth table.
"What is it?" Alex inquires in her deep throated tone, suspiciously, not buying his 'all out of' her favorite light beverage' line.
Sayer shrugs innocently.
"Nothing special, just some tropical juices, and some...club soda, and um..." He then takes a long, satisfying gulp of his own glass. "It's good, try it!" The impish rock star sings, hiding his own swirling head and mouth on fire, but his wild eyes said it all for perceptive Alex.
"Are you trying to get me drunk?" She asks circumspectly, eyeing the questionable hard liquor drink, no doubt, now in her hand.
"Ally! Why would you think that?" Sayer's guilty eyes pop open wide at the thought of being caught so easily by this exotic eyed beauty.
"Don't know, Wolf…" Alex smirks, taking a long sip from the glass anyway. Amazing I can be enjoying his company. She idly wonders to herself as she swallows, letting the vodka and…was that cognac?...slip down her dry throat languorously.
Suddenly, all the pumping dancing, the pounding music, and the heady alcohol loosening her up, Alex decides to try her question again, this time determined to get the answer. "Starr?" she says in her "no-nonsense tough guy" name for him.
Just as loose, as he was stimulated by the same factors, Sayer turns to her, beating his fingers on the table like a drum. "Starr!" Alex tries to gain his short attention span again, a bit louder.
But she could tell he wasn't really able to listen in this noisy room filled with swishing and swaying females, many donning short, short skirts and low, low halter tops.
"Yeah, Ally?" Sayer answers nonchalantly, his musical soul humming along with the music playing in that smooth, beautiful voice of his, though his bedazzled eyes were wandering everywhere else a tantalizing tush tarried.
"Earlier, what you said to Bunhead, about not saying goodbye." Alex pauses in mid-sentence, still uncertain whether she should broach this subject right now or not. Or even if she wanted to know, at all. Nonetheless, as Outer Scout Guardian leader, Alex plunges forward anyway to find out, for purely scout business purposes, of course. "Did you mean it?" Her deep green eyes search his just as deep blues for an honest answer.
Sayer abruptly stops his humming and gives her his full attention, meeting Alex's eyes, before he lowers them thoughtfully. "I think..."
I need words! How do I tell her how I feel if my tongue's all tied up!? Sayer agonizes to himself, his tolerance for alcohol great, though it did seem to muddy his ability to elucidate vast sentiments.
"...I think It would be hard to be a galaxy away if...if I had a good reason to stay." He finishes frankly, looking up into her eyes, hope filling his own.
"I—" Alex starts to respond to the enticing statement, when suddenly a man seated in the booth behind them abruptly turns around, easily catapulting himself over the divider between the booths and landing on his extremely big feet directly in front of Sayer.
"How can you just callously say that!? When you know how Her Majesty, the Princess of Kinmoku and Janus, feels for you!?" An unbelievably tall, dark, sepia haired man shouts, enraged at a thoroughly shocked Sayer.
"Jarrod?!" Sayer jumps to his feet, obviously recognizing the monstrously tall, angry man as everyone else in the room watches the confrontation with a spectator's interest.
"CAD! I always knew what you were—and that you would break her heart one day!" The big stranger continues his tirade, an upper-class foreign accent pervading his every battering word.
"What are you talking about?! Break whose heart?!" Sayer asks in confusion, his own temper beginning to flare. This Star Fighter, undaunted, does not back down from the heftier brute of a man in a dark cape.
"I followed you here…Prince…in order to drag your worthless personage back to Janus, back to the Princess' arms!" He adds with emotion in his voice. "Even after you deserted her, and now are about to discard her for another woman! You ungrateful wretch!"
"Discard her…? Why the hell do you think 'Ball and I are…!?" Sayer's high voice fills with incredulous anger at the unfounded accusations. As Princess Fireball's sworn Guardians, and adopted sibling to boot, Star Fighter, along with Maker and Healer, were all in adoration of their beloved Princess, and loved her with all their hearts. It didn't mean they were in love with her romantically, personally, as one man loves one woman. "She's like my sister, for heaven's sake! You're talking crazy, old man!" But Sayer's arrogant words of denial only served to outrage this envious military man more.
"You disrespectful little... You don't deserve her!" Sent over the edge, this towering man raises his previously concealed laser rifle to Sayer's head and takes direct aim as the crowd gasps at the sight of a weapon, especially one as oversized large and dangerous-looking as that.
Screaming, the civilians all race for the exits and pandemonium breaks loose...