Disclaimers, notes,
etc:
Sailor Moon and characters
contained therein do not belong to me. It's really not a terribly
complex concept. :)
Whoa NELLY! I'm
sorry it's taking me so damn long to write this story! Like I've
said in previous notes, I'm in college now (well not NOW; it's over for
the year!), so I've been way, way busy. I'll be starting
rehearsals for As
You Like It really soon, but hopefully I'll be able to finish this
in the near future.
Enjoy the story and
email me!!
************************************
Raye Hino is not a
stupid girl, that much is for sure... so why didn't I follow her advice?
I wanted to... I meant to... I went to Neil's office that day prepared
to tell him about Sailor Jupiter and Molly and Beryl and Nephrite, the
whole thing! Yet somehow I didn't. Somehow I walked out of
there having told him absolutely nothing. I'm such a coward!
I have this idea in my head, this vision of him remembering and deciding that he was a fool for loving me in the Silver Millennium and an even bigger fool for loving me now, now when I have no kingdom or title to stand behind, now when I'm just Lita Kino, orphan and average middle school girl.
But even that isn't true: how can a Sailor Senshi be average? We're special, different... we're set apart from our peers because we have no peers, not really. Is that why we're destined to be with Endymion's guardians? It makes sense, really; a balance is formed that can't be broken.
So how does all of this relate to what's happening with Serena? How can the presence of the Generals help her? I have to find out for sure if Neil's Nephrite for Serena's sake if nothing else. If she can only be brought back by the combined power of the senshi and the generals, then the generals must be found... and my own selfishness can't come before Serena's health.
I'll tell him.
I'm making him dinner tonight, and I'll tell him then. I'll just
come out and say it: "Hi, Neil, welcome. Guess what? I'm Sailor
Jupiter and you're a baddie named Nephrite who betrayed his prince for
the sake of power promised by an evil queen. Despite this, we're
destined to be together forever and ever. Tea?" Hmmm... maybe
the direct approach isn't the best idea in this case. We'll see,
I guess.
************************************
Lita checked her appearance in the mirror one last time. She was wearing a short, pale green dress, ivy embroidered along the collar and sleeves. Her hair was down from its ponytail, and she tucked it behind one ear impatiently. Stupid hair. Why did she go and listen to Mina anyway? Before she could work herself into sufficient annoyance to put it up again, the doorbell rang. She took a deep, calming breath and hurried to answer it.
"Hi, beautiful," Neil said, presenting her with a gorgeous bouquet of white lilies and kissing her on the cheek.
She grinned brightly, problems momentarily forgotten. "Arigato, Neil! They're so lovely. Come in; I'll put them in some water."
He followed her into the kitchen and took a deep breath. "It smells delicious in here, Lita! I skipped lunch today, so I'm starved."
"Good," she said, motioning for him to sit down, "because I made enough food for an army. And um..." She had her back to him as she stood at the sink making a big production of arranging the lilies in a large vase.
"Something wrong?" he asked, pulling a little black box from his pocket and checking the contents worriedly before putting it back.
“Wrong? Nai, not wrong, exactly... I just want to talk to you about something," she finished brightly, turning and placing the vase in the center of the table.
"Oh," he replied, relieved, "well, there's something I want to talk to you about, too. Do you mind if I go first?" he asked hesitantly.
She chewed on her lower lip a moment and turned away again, this time to stare out the kitchen window. "Uh-uh, go ahead," she said, stomach tied in a knot of nervous anticipation.
He frowned at her back and moved to put a hand on her shoulder. "Lita..."
Sensing his concern, she turned around quickly, wiping at her cheek as she did so. "Gomen, I just had something in my eye," she told him.
Wondering at the tears brightening her emerald eyes, he traced his fingertips along her cheek slowly. "Lita, what's the matter? Did something happen to Serena?"
"I'm fine, Neil. What is it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Ah, well..." He cleared his throat nervously and she couldn't help but smile. Cool, calm, collected Neil Forrester nervous? "I don't know if you realize this, Lita, but I'm just a little bit... well... crazy about you."
The smile broadened into a grin. "Only a little bit? That's too bad, because I'm way crazy about you."
He grinned sheepishly. "Ok, I guess you've caught me: I'm wild, crazy, mad, insane, loony in love with you, Lita... and I wanted to give you this." He held out the little black box with a tender smile. "I know how much you love flowers, especially roses, and the emerald's for your eyes... and I think you can pretty much figure out why it's shaped like a star."
The ring... it was the Silver Millennium ring. She couldn't say that she was surprised. "Oh, Neil," she murmured at last, "it's so beautiful... more beautiful even than in my dream."
"Your dream?"
"Shh," she said, pressing her fingertips against his lips. "Don't say anything. Please, just... just be quiet and let me enjoy this moment." While it lasts. She stared up at him, at his sapphire eyes, his curling auburn hair, his strong, beautiful profile; yes, it was a face she knew well, a face that haunted her dreams and vague, silvery memories from some long-forgotten time far, far in her past. But, some part of her reasoned, it was also a face she knew from now, Neil Forrester's face, the face of the man she loved then and now.
He kissed her softly, sensing some sudden change in her, some awakening or realization that he didn't understand, and slid the ring on her finger. "I love you, Lita."
"I love you too, Neil," she whispered against his lips. They stood still, just holding one another, for a long time. Lita knew the moment would have to end sometime, that he would let her go and she would tell him the truth about everything, but until then she was going to enjoy this as long as she could.
"Tell me, Lita," he said softly, the words muffled by her hair.
"Tell you what?"
"Whatever you need to. You said you wanted to talk to me about something."
She pulled away and took a few steps back. "You probably won't believe me."
"Why wouldn't I? Lita, whatever you have to say, it's all right."
The corners of her mouth lifted in a rueful little smile. "If only..." She shook her head. "Listen, Neil, there are things about me you don't know, things you can't even imagine. I'm not who you think I am."
"You're not Lita Kino? You're not the woman I love?" he asked teasingly.
She let out a long sigh. "I'm... I'm more than just Lita Kino. Do you remember when I told you that my favorite planet is Jupiter? And you asked me why and I said I had my reasons? Well, I do... and they're kinda strange."
"What? Lita, what does this have to do with Jupiter?" he asked, confused.
"Not so much Jupiter itself as... well, Sailor Jupiter... or, as I like to call her... um, me. I'm Sailor Jupiter, Neil," she finally managed to spit out. "I know that you don't believe me -- hell, I didn't really believe it at first -- but I'm not lying to you." She pulled out her transformation pen with another rueful smile. "I could show you if you'd like."
"Nai..." he murmured, his head spinning. "I... I believe you, Lita. I don't know why, because I don't believe in Sailor Moon, but I... I don't think you'd lie to me." He looked up at her through thick bangs with a hopeful smile. "You wouldn't, would you? Lie to me, I mean."
"No, Neil, I wouldn't... which is why I'm not through. Not only am I Sailor Jupi-ter, but you're... all right, see, it's kind of a long story. A thousand years ago we all lived on the Moon, and I was the princess of Jupiter and a guardian of the Moon princess, and you were a guardian of the prince of Earth. A woman named Queen Beryl somehow turned you and your fellow generals against the prince and you became evil. The Moon Kingdom was destroyed, and the queen sent us all into the future... and here we are.
"You were reborn as well, and my friends fought you as Nephrite, evil minion of Beryl. That was before I knew I was Sailor Jupiter, so I don't remember you that way... I remember you as the Nephrite I knew on the Moon. Do you remember me?" This last was said with such desperate hope that it gave him pause... but not much pause.
"Lita... Lita, what are you talking about? Fine, you're Sailor Jupiter. I can accept that. But all the rest of it!?" He shook his head disbelievingly and she stepped back, stung.
"I thought you said you knew I would never lie to you, Neil!"
"That was before you went completely bonkers. You think I'm the reincarnation of some general from a thousand years ago? Not only that, but I was evil? I fought the Sailor Senshi? Why wouldn't I remember that, Lita?!"
"I don't know!! Listen, Neil, you aren't the first! You know Jay and Malachy, Raye and Mina's boyfriends? They were generals, too! Jay is Jadeite and Malachy is Malachite... do you remember them?"
"No! I don't remember any of this, Lita!"
"What about Molly? Raye said... Raye said you loved her before, when you were posing as Maxfield Stanton here on Earth. She said you died in Molly's arms."
She was weeping now, weeping as he had never seen her, and it frightened him. Could there be some truth to this insanity? She seemed to believe it, and... no! It just wasn't possible. "Get this straight, Kino-san," he said, his voice like ice and steel, "I don't know what you're talking about. I think I should be going now."
She stared up at him with wide, horrified eyes. "Neil, matte! I'm telling you the truth!"
"I'm sure you think you are. You have the wrong person, Kino-san." He was almost to the door by this time, and it was all he could do not to run from the apartment at top speed.
"The ring, Neil! You gave me the same ring on the Moon the night before you left with Endymion and the other generals. We were in the planetarium, do you remember? You told me you were leaving for Earth, and I was angry with you for not telling me sooner. You gave me the ring and swore you'd always love me, and there was a meteor shower! We decided it was a good omen..." She trailed off hopelessly, somehow sensing that she would never be able to get through to him.
He stared at her with cold, hard eyes, struggling to overcome the emotions her words created within him. "Good-bye, Kino-san." With that he was gone, leaving a sobbing, heartbroken Lita Kino behind.
She's insane, that's the only explanation, he told himself. She had some vivid dreams and suddenly she thinks they're real. She's gone completely 'round the twist. It's good that I found out now, before... before what? Before I fell in love? Too damn late for that!
He was walking down the sidewalk at a furious pace, trying to put as much dis-tance between himself and Lita's apartment as he could. In his confusion, he had totally forgotten the car he had driven there. Before he knew it he was running, running hard and fast, running straight for the park where they had first met.
It seemed but a moment later he was standing before the fountain, his mind flooded with memories. He would never forget how she had looked the night of the meteor, how the moonlight had made her face soft and sweetly beautiful in a way she would never allow it to be under the harsh, glaring light of the sun. His mind flashed strangely, and the vision of his Lita in the moonlight was superimposed over the image of another girl, a girl who looked so nearly like Lita that they could be twins.
This second girl seemed... different somehow, though. She had an air of majesty about her, as though she was someone who was used to being deferred to without even realizing it. He shook his head to clear away the image, but it seemed to have opened a floodgate of similar memories. With a groan of pain, he sank to the ground beside the fountain, holding his head in his hands.
And he remembered.
@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–
Nephrite opened his
eyes to be greeted with... nothing. Darkness. What had just
happened? Somehow they'd been teleported to someplace other than
the Earth Palace, and then that... that... woman had appeared.
Now he was here, wherever in Tartarus here was.
He turned in a completely circle in a vain attempt to figure out where he might be. Blackness stretched around him on all sides, with no light to break the deep monotony. It was so dark that he couldn't even see the hand he waved before his face. A deep, chilling fear took hold of his heart, and he tried to ignore it.
"Hello?" he called tentatively. The word echoed and reechoed, though he couldn't see anything for the sound to echo off of.
Suddenly the air seemed to shimmer and Makoto materialized before his outstretched, groping hands. "Mako-chan!" he cried, surprised and delighted.
The beautiful girl laughed cruelly. "The stars, Nephrite? Really! What a silly thing to put your faith in! You're a fool! Good-bye, Nephrite. Enjoy your solitude." She hissed this last word, and he cringed. Still laughing, she turned and disappeared into the darkness.
"Mako-chan?!" he demanded, mystified. "Mako-chan!!" The echoes were desolate enough to crush him, and he covered his ears in something akin to pain. He took a deep breath to calm his frayed nerves, and slowly he began to relax. He just needed to meditate, that was all. If he could enter into a trance he could get in touch with the movement of the stars.
Quite suddenly he realized that he truly was all alone in this black abyss. He could find no energy traces that came from his connection to the Heavens. "No!" he murmured, and even that echoed back at him mockingly. He began to run across the slippery, obsidian surface as fast as he could, but there was no end to the unnaturally deep, evil night. "NO!!" He was bereft, utterly and completely cut off from everything he had ever known and taken comfort in.
As he ran, a sound rose from all around him, blanketing him in its horror. It was a laugh, a vile cackle that he recognized with revulsion "This is your Hell, Nephrite. There are no stars here, no friends or family or loved ones, no one to tell you what to do or offer you guidance. That can all change if you come to me, my shitennou. You know you cannot resist."
His scream of pain filled the desolate space, and Beryl laughed again.
"To tell you the truth, Ami-chan, I'm a little... well, frankly, I'm scared,” Makoto confessed to her friend as they stared at the ranks of youma advancing toward them.
"Of them? Since when have you ever been afraid of battle?"
"Nai, not of the battle... Ami-chan, what if what Rei-chan said last night is true? What if they're dead?" She whispered this last word, afraid that if he said it too loudly the Fates might hear and decide to take scissors to the precious threads that belonged to the four Earth Generals.
The blue-haired Mercurial stared at the other girl in shock. "Don't say that, Mako-chan! Rei is wrong about this, I know she is. Don't you think the prince would have sent us word if something that drastic had happened on Earth?"
The brunette lifted her eyes to the glowing blue orb that hung in the sky and smiled wanly. "You would think he'd have that much sense... but you never can tell about those Earthlings." She grinned down at Ami and the tension was broken.
"Look sharp, Mako-chan," she said quickly, "here they come!"
And come they did. Wave after wave of youma attacked the Moon's forces, and the defenders were gradually loosing ground. Makoto was right in the middle of a celebratory dance after having taken out six at a time with her Thunder Dragon when she happened to glance over her shoulder at the Moon Palace. Gods, it's so close!! she thought, mini-victory forgotten completely.
The sight seemed to bring her back to reality, and she looked all around her, stricken by the body-strewn battlefield. Never in her life had Makoto seen anything so... horrifying. Blood soaked the silver soil, and even the pale light couldn't disguise the redness of it. Her stomach lurched, and she probably would have lost her breakfast if something even more startling hadn't caught her attention.
The youma had stopped fighting.
Glancing around, she quickly located Minako and began making her way to her leader's side. "What's happened?" she heard Ami ask. "Have we won?"
Tugging on the end of her ponytail, Makoto stared hard at the enemy ranks and let out a little gasp. "I don't think so," she whispered, "look!" It was the Earth Generals; she would know them anywhere. What...? She shook her head and began paying attention to the scene being played out between Minako and Malachite.
"...Are you here to join us?" she caught Minako-chan asking.
"Nai, Sailor Venus," she was shocked to hear him say, "we have come to destroy you in the name of the Negaverse!"
Aghast, she turned her eyes to Nephrite, who nodded coldly. "He speaks the truth, Sailor Jupiter. The stars have chosen a new path for us; a path that leaves no room for your pathetic Silver Millennium!"
"Why? Nephrite, why?!" His only answer was a blast of power that sent her flying. Anger surged through her and she responded with an explosion of her own. "I don't want to fight you, Nephrite!" she cried, cradling an injured arm.
"I don't believe you have any choice, girl!" She screamed as another rush of magic ripped through her body. She fell, gasping, and gathered her last bit of strength into a powerful bolt of lightning that sent him crashing to the ground next to her.
"Nephrite!" she murmured, crawling over to him. "Oh, Nephrite..." She rested her head on his chest and listened to her world falling apart around her in the slowing beats of his heart.
"It's over, Mako-chan," he whispered, the Nephrite she knew and loved returning to his eyes. "All that Queen Serenity has built is dying. I wish only that I had not a hand in its destruction."
"I love you, Nephrite," she breathed.
"And I you, Makoto.
You will always be... my... my guiding star." And so they died in
each other's arms, bathed in blood and the bright, beautiful silver light
of the Moon.
@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–@–
End V