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Moon Kingdom
Queen Serenity read over the letter again, then folded it and placed it among the official paperwork for the next day's meetings as a servant walked into the room.
"Your Majesty? Your daughter is looking for you."
Serenity nodded to the servant and stood. It was done. Finally. After all these years, both of her daughters would know the truth. Whatever the repercussions, she would face them in whatever time she had left. She knew that it was only a matter of time now, before everything she held dear fell to ruin. Her kingdom was only promised one millennium ... and it had come and gone. She just hoped that the children were ready.
Pulling herself from her thoughts, she followed the sounds of music back to the ballroom. She knew what her daughter wanted of her, she had yet to meet the young man who had escorted the Princess to the ball, this Lord Zoisite. A companion to her other child and Guardian of the Prince of Earth. And by all accounts, the most respectable of Endymion's generals. She placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder, stopping the couple in mid-step. "Darling? You wanted to see me?"
Princess Serenity smiled at her mother and motioned to the young man she was dancing with. "I wanted to introduce you to someone. He and his brother had not yet arrived when the other Generals were presented. Mother, this is Lord Zoisite."
Zoisite smiled slightly and bowed. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you, your Majesty."
At the sound of his voice, Queen Serenity felt her heart almost stop. 'He sounded just like ... ' Smiling at the two, she motioned to his mask. "I know it's not time for the unmasking, but I would like to see the man my daughter has chosen for her escort."
Zoisite hesitated for a moment, then reached up and removed the mask. As soon as he did, he noticed that the Queen was looking at him strangely. "Your Majesty? Is something wrong?"
"Are you well, mother?"
"I ... I'm fine." Queen Serenity lightly touched Zoisite's face and smiled. "You look just like your father this way."
"Majesty? I was not aware that you knew my father, but I have always thought Nephlite resembled him more." Zoisite smiled a little. "I've always been told I look more like a cousin to the Prince than Nephlite's brother."
Princess Serenity looked from her mother to Zoisite and back again. "Mother, is something wrong?"
Queen Serenity smiled at them and motioned to the balcony. "Come with me. I need to speak with both of you."
Before any of them could move, the Palace Guards came running in and formed a ring around the royal family. "Majesty! News from the Outer Worlds. The Kingdom is under attack!"
Zoisite paled slightly and looked at Queen Serenity. "I'm afraid that chat will have to wait, Majesty. The two of you are in good hands, so I must see to my Prince." He then turned to Princess Serenity. "We will finish this dance another time, Princess."
He then leaned close and kissed her. "From your Prince, my lady," he whispered. Before either woman could react, he slipped between the guards and left the ballroom.
Queen Serenity sighed heavily and looked at the gathered guests. She then turned to the Captain of the Guard. "Have the Guards stand ready. And gather the Senshi in my Chambers. I want to be notified the instant anything happens."
Zoisite ran out of the ballroom and soon caught up with the other Generals in the Gardens. "They know," he replied, catching his breath.
Kunzite nodded. "Then we will send word to our Queen to advance the attacks. We can not afford to let them get their full defenses up."
Nephlite placed a hand on Zoisite's shoulder. "Come, brother. It is time for us to claim our true destiny."
Jadeite smirked as he glanced back toward the palace. "Rest well, your Majesty. By tomorrow night, the Moon Kingdom will only be a memory."
Earth, Alvarson Mansion, Dec. 25, 2009
It was Usami's turn to wake in a cold sweat. As she glanced around the room, she noticed that no one else was awake. 'Who's ... who's dream was THAT?!' She collapsed back onto the bed for several minutes before giving up on trying to sleep at all.
Since the older girls were to be starting at Orinda in a couple of weeks, the Kinmokunai had agreed that it was easier to move them all into the mansion. Usami and the three older girls shared a room on the second floor, that was once two smaller bedrooms. Kai, Tsuki and Mi-ko, otherwise known as Minako, would be in a similar room next door after the holidays.
The triplets and Rsin were in the room next to Kakyuu, since she had volunteered to keep an eye on them for Taiki. Yaten and Taiki, were sharing a room on the third floor to be closer to the children. Seiya was next door to them with his youngest daughter, Rei. Usami's older brother, Kageshirou, as well as Yaten's sister, Kaish and her kids, Xavier and Devii, would be moving into the other house.
Not ready to risk going back to sleep, Usami walked through the house carefully, trying not to wake anyone. She walked to the kitchen and got a glass of water before sitting at the table and trying to figure out what the dream had meant. 'I know who three of the Generals are, I see their dreams often enough, but who were the two women? The one looked like ...' "Chiba-san? Why would I be having dreams about Chiba-san?"
"Another nightmare?" Tanetomi smiled at her friend when she jumped. She got herself a drink then sat beside the other girl.
"Yeah, another one. Same place, same time, different POV." Usami sighed as she finished her drink. She glanced at the clock and noticed that barely an hour had passed since she had woken from the twins' nightmare. Sighing, she turned to the blue-haired girl beside her. "What are you doing up this late?"
Tanetomi shrugged. "Can't sleep. I keep thinking about ... I don't think I want to switch schools again so soon."
"Why don't you want to switch? I thought you didn't like the school we were at."
Tanetomi laid her head on the table and sighed. "I don't, it's just ... we barely got used to Juuban then we had to leave. Now we're just beginning to get used to this school and we have to transfer again. There's absolutely no time to make friends at all."
Usami smiled slightly as she placed a hand on her friend's shoulder. "So, that's it. You've got a crush on someone and you don't want to transfer until you get to at least meet him, right?" When the other girl's neck turned red, she grinned. "I knew it. The 'Soul Hunter' has a crush on someone."
"Don't call me that," Tanetomi sat up and quickly downed her drink. "Unless you want me to start calling you by your 'other' name, Queen Badi-"
Usami placed her hands over her friend's mouth. "Ok, sorry, just don't ... don't, ok? That would not go over well with our parent's 'friends'."
"They'll have to find it out sometime," Tanetomi replied, pulling the other girl's hand from her mouth. "We will all have a LOT of explaining to do."
January, 2010
"As I told you over the phone, Mrs. Aotani-"
"Please, just call me Kakyuu, Sakuma-san."
Jinia Sakuma glanced up at the other woman and smiled. "Very well, Kakyuu-san. As I told you over the phone, Tamura-san doesn't seem to be adjusting very well to the new school. I realize that classes have only been back in session for a couple of weeks now, but ... I'm just concerned about her."
Kakyuu nodded slightly. "Some things happened over Winter break that ... well, to be honest, they've changed her. I'm sorry, but I can't go into the details."
"That's ok, I read the information in her file," Jinia replied. She pulled a card from her desk drawer and handed it to the redhead. "Maybe she can talk to this lady about it. She's pretty good at talking to teenagers that are having ... problems."
The door to the classroom opened and a young girl around Usami's age stuck her head in. "Hey mom- oh, sorry, didn't realize you were in a conference."
"That's ok, Hikari," Jinia replied in English. "What did you need, sweetheart?"
"I was just going to tell you that I'll be in the library working on that science paper when you're done." Hikari smiled slightly at the redheaded woman in the room with her mother and felt a strange familiarity at the back of her mind.
"Ok." Jinia smiled at her daughter and watched her leave, then turned back to Kakyuu, switching back to Japanese. "My daughter, Hikari. She goes to school here."
Kakyuu nodded dumbly for a moment, then smiled at Jinia. "She looks a lot like you." 'And like her father ... I knew her name sounded familiar.'
"Yeah, except for her father's green eyes." Jinia smiled sadly for a moment then looked at Kakyuu. "Sorry about that. Now, where were we?"
"You were recommending that I tell Shi's father to send her to counseling. I honestly do not think that either of them will consider it." Kakyuu took the card that Jinia had laid on the desk and placed it into her pocket. "But I will tell him. Perhaps speaking to someone outside of the family will be good for her."
Jinia nodded. "It tends to be. I know some people are bothered by the idea of going to a therapist, but it really does help. I don't mind telling you that I myself went when I was younger. After I lost ... after Hikari's father left."
"He must have meant a lot to you," Kakyuu replied. She smiled at Jinia then glanced at the clock and stood. "I hate to cut this meeting short, but as I told you over the phone, my daughters are still going to Japanese school in the afternoons and I promised I would take them today."
"That's alright. I've thought about enrolling Hikari in one before, but she just doesn't seem that interested in where her parents came from."
Kakyuu smiled slightly as she followed the other woman out of the classroom. "Most children aren't. But something tells me she will be, in time."
Jinia shrugged as she escorted the redhead toward the exit. The library that Hikari said she was going to, wasn't the one at the school, but rather, the private library of an old family friend who lived just a few blocks away. "Somehow, I doubt that."
Kakyuu smiled knowingly as the two women chatted about their children on their way out. As soon as they were outside, the former princess spotted the van Seiya had purchased and noticed that the singer was behind the wheel. She had agreed to meet with Shi's teacher since Seiya was still nursing a few minor burns that Hotaru had refused to heal after hearing him argue with Kageshirou. "Sakuma-san, I ... want you to meet Shi's father," Kakyuu replied as they reached the van.
Seiya looked up and felt his jaw drop when he saw the woman standing with Kakyuu. "J-Ji-chan?"
The seven alien teenagers all looked out the window to watch as the raven-haired man jumped from the car and ran over to the stunned woman. Shi raised an eyebrow and looked at the other teenagers. "Why is Dema hugging my teacher?"
Jinia hesitated a moment before returning the hug. "Seiya-san ... it's been a long time." As soon as he let go of her, she stepped back and quickly checked to see if there were any other faculty around. She turned back to Seiya and noticed the bandages on his arm and hand. "You look ... injured."
"Oh, these? Burned myself trying to light a camp-fire. Never was very good at that kind of stuff." Seiya idly noticed that Kakyuu had already gotten into the van and that Jinia seemed very nervous. "Eh, Jin-- Sakuma-san, I want to apologize for my behaviour all those years ago. I know that must not mean much now, but ... a lot of things have changed since then."
"That's an understatement, Seiya-san." Jinia noticed the girls watching them and smiled sadly when she saw that two of them looked like Yaten. "Is he well?"
Seiya smiled sadly. "He will be better when he knows you are here. I ... won't lie to you, Sakuma-san. I know Yaten always told you the truth." He paused for a few moments as he collected his thoughts. "Yaten just lost his wife and son a couple of months ago."
"You don't have to say anything else, Seiya-san. Knowing he is alive is enough for me." Jinia walked away before Seiya could say anything else and heard one of the girls in the van tell him they were going to be late if they didn't leave now. 'Even after all these years he still doesn't want me near Yaten.'
Seiya watched Jinia leave then turned back to the van. "Ok, Miyo, we're going." Since Kakyuu was still not comfortable driving, he had agreed to take her to the meeting with Jinia. The girls had roped him into taking them to Japanese school rather than going with Sarah and the others simply because most of them were still uncomfortable around the telepath and her friends.
"Dema, who was that lady? I know she's Shi's teacher, but Uncle Seiya seemed to know her too." Tsuki leaned forward in her seat and was whispering to her mother. She wasn't very close to her cousins, or her even her sister, preferring instead the company of their mother and uncles. Like Shi, she felt little use for their human 'friends', but had so far, managed to avoid conflicts with any of them.
"I think she's an old friend of your uncles' from when they lived on Earth before. Kind of like Umino-san, except without powers." Kakyuu decided to wait until after they dropped the girls' off before mentioning Jinia's daughter to Seiya.
"How is the resettlement going?"
Kageshirou glanced at the readouts he had been able to feed into the computer in the 'Control Center' underneath the mansion. "Pretty good, so far. The Krytos think that they can have Mars set up to support human and Kinmoku life in about 10 years. But right now, it's just perfect for them. Emperor Xtt said that he was able to breathe easy now."
Yaten nodded as he sat down beside the younger man. Ever since the incident on the ship, Kageshirou had been avoiding Seiya as much as possible. He had spent most of the last few weeks converting part of the computers in the house to work with the ones from their own ships. He had been pleasantly surprised to see such advanced systems in the basement of the mansion and had admitted a new-found respect for their creators. "And the others?"
"Mars turned out to be too warm for the Ki-Kich-"
"Kxchek."
"Yeah, them. They sent a team out to Jupiter. The gravity's a little more than their home planet, but they said they think they can counter that by tethering the colony to the planet then allowing it to rise above the storms." Kageshirou began to explain the specific plans of the different races that had come to call Kinmoku home. After a couple of minutes, he noticed that Yaten seemed distracted. "And the Hrrrrunai are going to be moving into the house down the street. They've already made plans to set fire to the mansion and the Pacific Ocean."
"That's nice. Huh?" Yaten looked at his nephew when he started chuckling. "What's so funny?"
"You haven't been paying attention to anything I've said. Your heart's not really into this. Why don't you go with Dema tonight? Now that the government has relaxed their surveillance, he's anxious to go see what California is really like," Kageshirou made a face at the idea, then grinned at Yaten. "Don't worry about Kai and Mi-ko, they'll be fine. I have already been assigned to 'big-brother' duty for the evening."
Yaten smiled a little. "You know, I think I will. Fumi' wouldn't want me moping around here like this. And Ichi ... I just have to believe that Serenity-sama's friend can bring him back." He stood and placed a hand on the younger man's arm. "Don't let Seiya get you down, kiddo. He'll get over this soon enough. He knows you did the right thing."
Kageshirou watched him leave then smiled slightly. "I'm glad someone does. I just wish I did."
"Tell me again why I agreed to this?"
"Because the two of you need to stop arguing over the past. Every one is fine. Ok, so Miyo got a rather rude awakening to her powers. Not what anyone would have wanted, but she was bound to wake up to them sooner or later," Yaten replied.
Seiya sighed, pausing at the edge of the parking lot. She had been roped into going to the club with Taiki and Yaten, all three agreeing that their female forms would be better for a night out on the town. In these forms, they could forget the lives they had once lived on this planet and simply enjoy the here and now. "Taiki, I ... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten mad at Kageshirou. He was only doing what he thought was right. I just got scared."
Taiki watched her friend for several moments before smiling. "We all did. Apology accepted. Now, come on, let's party. You can apologize to the kid when we get home," she replied, pulling lightly on the black-haired woman's ponytail. "Right now, there are no worries. No monsters are waiting around the corner. The sky isn't falling ... we can afford to relax."
Yaten grinned as she grabbed her two friends by their arms and pulled them toward the club. "I'm glad you finally see that. Come on before life catches up with us."
