OBLIGATORY LEGAL DISCLAIMER : None of these guys are mine. The Sailor 
Senshi belong to DIC and Kodansha, while the Yoroiden are owned by 
Sunrise and Graz Entertainment. Okay? So don't bother suing me. I'm a 
student. 

                       RONIN SUMMER : FLASHBACK
            
         A Sailor Moon / Yoroiden Samurai Troopers cross-over

             by Morgan Hudson (dataraven_659@excite.com)

Chapter Seven : Complications

	Rowen blinked the sweat from his eyes and shook his head, 
trying to dislodge some of the worries floating around in there. With 
a sigh, he lifted the bow and drew an arrow from the quiver that hung 
from the thick leather belt around his waist. Closing his eyes for a 
second, he shook his head once more and nocked the arrow, carefully 
drawing it back until the feathers were brushing his cheekbone. 

	Several feet away, the wicker frame seemed to be mocking him
with its cheery white and red bull's-eye. Several arrows dotted the 
ground and trees nearby, but the padded disc remained distressingly 
untouched. 

	"Damn it," the blue haired boy grumbled, "usually I can at 
least hit the target! My aim must be off today for some reason..."

	As if he didn't know damn well what was wrong with his aim. 
Lowering the bow and easing the arrow back down into a ready position,
he took a moment to wipe at his eyes, and sniffed. Damn tears. Setting 
his jaw, Rowen lifted the bow and once again drew back the arrow, 
squinting at the blurry target. How, he wondered, could he have let 
Sage wander off into that library alone? Sure, he had had Sailor Venus
with him, but still! Sage was my friend, Rowen thought, and I should 
have been there to look out for him. I let him down. The image of the 
blond man, stretched out on Venus' bed as the Court Physician examined 
him, haunted the young archer. 

	"We can't do it," he whispered softly to himself, "we can't 
save the Moon Princess, we can't stop Ace, we can't do ANYTHING... 
not without him..." With a sob, he fell to his knees, and the arrow 
went soaring from his fingers unnoticed. It arced high through the air,
twirling over the target, over the trees, past the hedges...

	"Ow!" 

	Rowen blinked. "Uh-oh." He watched with a growing feeling of 
unease as a tall brunette woman dressed in a glossy, emerald green 
gown popped out of the shrubs like a rabbit, his arrow clutched firmly
in one hand. Large green eyes scanned the suddenly far too barren 
knoll, resting quickly on Rowen, who gulped and tried to hide his 
bow behind his back. "I think," he muttered, as Princess Jupiter began 
walking towards him, "I am in all sorts of new and interesting 
trouble."

	The willowy Senshi of Jupiter lost no time in preamble. "Are 
you nuts?" Shaking the arrow in her fist, she pointed to a faint 
scratch marring her cheek. "Look at this! You nearly hit me, you dolt! 
If you'd been another few inches to the left, I'd be dead right now!"

	Rowen's first instinct was to run like hell. Jupiter was 
reknowned for her temper, and he usually had no desire to be involved 
in things that were going to hurt him. Today, however, he found himself
actually drawing himself up onto his tiptoes and leaning forward, 
glaring into the eyes of the Princess. "Listen," he seethed, "how the 
hells was I supposed to know you were over there? It's not like I was 
trying to hit you, you know!"

	"No," Jupiter spat back, "I think I would be SAFER if you 
were trying to hit me! The target is probably the safest thing in the 
whole castle, with you around!"

	"You think you can do any better?" Rowen roughly shoved his 
bow against the taller girl's chest, and scowled as he pointed at 
the target. "Be my guest."

**********

	Venus scowled as she placed her hands on her hips. "What?" 

	The young physician standing -or perhaps cowering was a better
word- before her cringed, and tried to hide behind his clipboard. "Er,
we... uhm... we don't exactly KNOW what's wrong with the patient, 
Princess." 

	Venus raised an eyebrow. Her expression quite clearly read : 
*Oh, I see you have a problem. How inconvenient for you. FIX IT.*  
After a few seconds of this gaze, the physician was beginning to 
understand why the senior staff members had insisted that HE be the one
to deliver this news to the Princess of Venus. A few seconds later, he 
began to wonder why he hadn't gone into accounting instead of medicine.

	"Uhm," he cleared his throat, and tried to continue, wishing 
he had a larger clipboard. "Actually, I th-think he may s-suffer from 
some exotic f-form of... poisoning?" 

	"Poisoning?" 

	"P-p-p-p..."

	"Oh, spit it out! That man over there hasn't got all day!"

	"Poisoning, Princess. Positively poisoning. Please don't hurt 
me!" Or, he thought to himself, I could have gone into magic. I think 
I would have liked being a magician, with all those spells and potions
and such. Like being a doctor, but with no patients. Or Princesses. 

	Venus groaned. "I don't kill messengers, doctor. If he's 
poisoned, then what's the problem? Cure him and wake him up. Now, 
please." She clasped her hands in front of her and blinked at him like 
one of his younger patients asking for a lollipop. 

	"It's not that easy!" The physician began to wail, and fell to 
his knees. "We don't know what the poison is! It's affecting his chi 
somehow! There's all kinds of complicated procedures that everyone 
wants to try, and none of them are going to work, and then you'll blame
me! Oh, I KNEW I should have been a carpenter!" 

	"Can't cure him?" Venus grabbed the blubbering young doctor by 
the lapels of his long white coat. "You must have SOMETHING in mind, 
something that can work!"

	"The best we can do is give him an all-purpose healing potion."
The physician sniffed, and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "We can try 
to research the poisons we know : m-maybe he was hit by a variation. 
Some kind of combination hex, maybe? The healing spell will keep him 
alive, but he won't wake up unless we can get an antidote." 

	"I understand." Venus released her grip on the man and dusted 
off his shoulders. "By any chance, do you have any other patients to 
attend to?" 

	"Well, there ARE a few..." 

	"Wrong," Venus corrected him pleasantly, "there's one. As of 
now, your every waking moment is devoted to finding a cure for the man 
in that bed over there. Has any of the medical staff taken time off, 
or gone on vacation?"

	"Er, yes, several of our senior members have..."

	"Great! They can keep you company." Venus smiled, much like a 
shark might smile at a guppy. "As of now, all vacations are revoked, 
and all doctors are put on permanent duty. I think you can guess which
patient they will be attending. Take anything you think you might need 
to search for your antidote : I hereby give you carte blanche over the 
entire palace. Tell everyone who was too cowardly to face me that 
Sailor Venus, leader of the Sailor Senshi, would consider it a personal
debt if they succeed in this endeavour. Tell them she will consider it 
a personal INSULT if they fail. And, what was your name?" 

	"B-Benjiro Jomei, Princess."

	"Benjiro Jomei. Tell them you now have their jobs." That said,
Venus stood in silence and looked at the doctor expectantly. "Do this 
NOW," she added, and he raced out of the room as though all the youma 
in the Dark Kingdom were chasing him. He could have been a lawyer, he 
thought to himself as he left. Why hadn't he become a lawyer?

**********

	With a weary sigh, Venus collapsed on the floor in a swirl of 
shimmering orange skirts and gleaming golden hair. Her face was in 
shadows, hidden behind the blonde curtain of her hair, but the way in 
which her bare shoulders shook, and the sniffling noises she made, 
Kento could tell he was just in time. 

	"Well done, lass!" The burly Captain of the Royal Guard made a
point of beaming as widely as he could, and clapped her on the back 
with a hand the size of her head. "For a moment there, you were the 
spitting image of your mother." 

	"How's Sage?" Venus looked up, her large blue eyes glistening 
as they met Kento's weathered brown orbs. "He didn't wake up, did he? 
I didn't miss it?" 

	"No, he's still asleep. Not restfully, though. Boy's tossing 
and turning worse than a boat in a storm, he is. Talking too : seems 
he has a bit of a bone to pick with his parents, whoever they are." 
Kento looked away for a moment, then back to his student. "Now, lass. 
Tell me again why it is he's struck your fancy?" 

	"Struck my fancy? I don't know what you're talking-"

	"Bullshit." Kento snorted into his beard and crouched down 
next to the slim young girl. "I've been training you since you were 
just a scrawny little five year old with a runny nose and a bandage on
one knee. My poppa trained you three years before that. I've seen you 
happy, angry, depressed, and even sad. And I've never seen you look 
at anyone the way you look at him. Not even the Moon Princess."

	Venus looked ready to object, then smiled sadly. "You know," 
she said quietly, "I've been confiding in you since you were a gangly,
goofy twelve year old with braces. And no beard. I don't know why I 
even bother hiding anything from you any more. Hells, you probably 
even knew I was a Senshi before I did."

	"If you weren't Sailor Venus, I would have eaten my boots," 
Kento admitted with a grin. "You were the best student my poppa had 
ever had, and I knew you could wipe the floor with anyone who tried to 
challenge your claim to the henshin. You've only gotten better, too." 

	Venus sighed, and rested her head against one hand. "He said I 
have gorgeous eyes, Kento. Gorgeous!"

	"You've heard much the same, from dozens of tongues." 

	"Professional tongues, that form the words from courtesy." 
Venus hugged herself and shivered. "They would say the same if I had 
three eyes, and compliment me on the improvement, for giving them more 
to look at. When Sage saw me, that first day, I wasn't Princess Venus 
to him. I wasn't wearing a fine gown, or caked in layers of makeup. I 
hadn't even had my hair done, and he thought I was beautiful." The 
girl bit her lip slightly. "Am I making sense, Kento? Hundreds have 
written poems to my beauty, but when Sage says I am beautiful, I know 
that he MEANS it." 

	"Ay, there's the rub." Kento groaned as he shifted his weight 
uncomfortably. "And for this alone, do you favour him?" 

	"No!" Venus shook her head. "Sage is smart, and handsome, and 
brave, and gentle! Every other man in this castle acts like I'm some 
kind of china doll, to look at and then put away in some dusty old 
corner! The few who know that I'm really Sailor Venus can't even look 
at me without cringing! Do you have any idea how happy I was when I 
was engaged to Kunzite? I thought that at least my husband would try 
to understand me. And with him, it's worse! He isn't even attracted to 
me at all! He just wants me like he would a new sword, or a table! I'm
a piece of PROPERTY to my own fiance! He treats me like a THING!" She 
was nearly in tears now, rising to her feet and stamping in 
frustration. "At least Sage acts like I'm his equal! A person, with 
opinions, and abilities!" 

	"And," Kento forced himself to interject, "you're not engaged 
to him. So what are you going to do about it?" 

**********

	What WAS she going to do about it, Venus wondered as she 
entered her bedchamber and closed the door, leaning against it and 
closing her eyes. Kunzite would never surrender his claim to her, 
especially not to someone of common blood. After all, Zoisite had 
hardly twitched when Prince Ken had stated a claim on poor, sweet 
Mercury, and that man had even less reason to want a wife. Or, if the 
rumours about her husband-to-be were true, the exact same reason. 

	Mercury had been in tears that night, Venus recalled. 
Apparently, Ken had taken his sister's advice and left for home after 
making his big scene. Of course, as Mercury had explained, she and Ken 
were truly in love. The fact they had been sleeping together for weeks 
should have given him an irrefutable claim. The fact his sister Mars 
had walked in on them five days previous went a long way to explaining 
why he had been doomed from the start. To make it worse, Zoisite had 
actually entered the room in mid-confession. He hadn't said a word 
until Mercury was done, and in fact neither of the girls had even known
he was there until he spoke. 

	"Have no fear, Princess," he had said, no doubt in a misguided 
attempt to be helpful, "you may share your bed with any man you wish. 
I know that I certainly plan to." 

	After that night, Mercury had locked the doors to her chambers,
and except for a minstrel named Cye, nobody had seen her since. Rumour 
had it that she sat awake all hours, playing endless games of chess 
with a partner she would probably never see again. Ken had always loved
chess, Venus recalled : he had a tricky mind, which revelled in plots 
and deceptions. 

	A soft groan came from her bed, and her eyes snapped open. 

	"Sage?" Remembering her true purpose for being where she was, 
she glanced down at the vial in her hand. A thick, syrupy red liquid 
burbled to itself within the glass tube, and she sighed. "Sage, I've 
been talking to the doctors. They've got a pretty good idea what's 
been done to you," she lied, "and they're working on a cure right now."

	The blonde man in her bed moaned and rolled onto his side, 
facing Venus. His eyes were still shut, and his glasses were carefully 
set next to a thick book, atop the pile of white robes that sat on her 
bedside table. He had such lovely eyes, she thought to herself. She 
wondered if she'd ever see them look at her again. She shook her head 
furiously. That was stupid, she told herself. He was going to be FINE. 

	"Now, the doctors want you to take this potion, okay, Sage?" 
With a tug, she popped the cork free and carefully smelled the 
contents. After all, she wouldn't put it beneath that 'Ace' fellow to 
try something underhanded to finish Sage off. "It's a healing potion, 
Sage. It'll help you sleep, until they can find that cure." She bit 
her lip, and looked down at the sleeping boy. A sheen of perspiration 
covered his face, and her covers were tangled around him like a white 
silk shroud. She leaned over him and lifted his head with one hand. 

	"Come on, Sage. You have to drink it all..." Tilting the vial, 
she began to pour the thick syrup down his throat. A dribble leaked 
from the corner of Sage's open mouth, and Venus quickly caught it on 
one finger. 

	"Now, now," she whispered, "we can't have that." Guiltily, she 
looked over her shoulder and checked that the door was shut. With Kento
lurking around, it was never really safe to let one's guard down. 
Reassured, she smiled slightly and leaned in closer, running her tongue
along Sage's jawline and gently coaxing the liquid back up to his lips.
She lingered there for a while -to make absolutely sure the syrup 
wasn't leaking, of course- and then leaned back, wiping her mouth with 
the back of her hand. 

	"You know," she whispered into the slumbering scribe's ear, 
"I've never done that before. I certainly hope you're not the sort to 
kiss and tell, Sage. This is our little secret, right?" 

	Sage failed to respond, and she decided to take his silence as 
a "yes". 

	"I knew I could trust you, Sage." Venus sighed happily and 
rested her head on his chest for a moment, sliding her arms around him.
He was already calming down, she could tell, as his ragged breathing 
slowed into a more gentle and subdued rate. 

	"I have to go now, Sage," Venus said after a few minutes, as 
she stood back up and set the empty vial next to the Biography of King 
Saigo the Eighth. "But I'll be back as soon as I can, okay? You just 
sleep : you've earned your rest."

**********

	Jupiter drew back the arrow, testing the tautness of the string
and curve of the bow. "Not bad," she grudgingly admitted. "Your weapon
is in pretty good shape, for someone with such poor aim."
	
	"I take pride in my tools," Rowen confessed, and smiled. "Would
you care to go first?" 

	"Why not?" Jupiter said with a smile of her own. So far, this 
guy in the hood was the most fun she'd had all day. She wondered why 
he looked so familiar... probably reminded her of a scarecrow she saw 
in some farmer's field, she thought, and giggled. Suppressing the 
thought, she drew and released in a single, fluid motion. "What do 
you think?" 

	"Very nice," Rowen said, staring at her exposed leg. 

	"I meant the shot." Jupiter said with a scowl. 

	"Well, then so did I." Rowen responded with a smirk, and took 
back his bow. With a deep breath, he pulled a shaft free from the 
ground and aimed at the target, which sat at the bottom of the slight 
hill they stood on. "Okay," he muttered, "I can win, I can beat her, 
I just have to be focused, and hey, what's that over there?" Turning
his head, he stared at a particularly large butterfly as it wobbled 
past him on its way to pollinate some flowers. With a wince, Rowen 
felt the feathered shaft slide from his fingers and heard the 
distinctive twang of his bowstring. "Nuts!" 

	Jupiter was staring at him with her jaw slack. "Do you ALWAYS 
shoot without looking?" 

	Rowen grinned sheepishly. "I'm easily distracted," he admitted 
with a groan.

	Jupiter looked over at the target, where an arrow shivered mere
inches from her own shot. "Do that again."

	"Eep." With a gulp, Rowen reached down and pulled an arrow from
his quiver. He nocked it to his bow and carefully drew it back. 

	"No." Jupiter's hands wrapped around his, rearranging his grip.
"You're holding your arrow all wrong. Don't grab it, pinch it, like 
this. And you're holding it too tight : your shot will jerk to the left
when you release."

	"Uh, okay." Rowen blinked and did as he was told. "Better?" 

	"No." Jupiter placed her leg between his, kicking apart his 
ankles and widening his stance. "Try standing like this." Her breath 
tickled his neck, and Rowen felt his ears twitch. "Now, focus! 
Concentrate!"

	"I'm TRYING! I'm TRYING!" Rowen squeezed his eyes shut, and 
the arrow flew off again. There was a loud thunk. 

	"Well," Jupiter admitted with a chuckle as she stepped back 
and looked at where his wild shot had landed, "at least if you ever 
get attacked by a tree, you'll know what to do. Why did you get so 
tense right before you fired? You were doing fine."

	"I got nervous, okay?" Rowen countered, and turned away with 
a sigh of exasperation. "I guess maybe this just isn't my thing!" 

	Jupiter raised an eyebrow. "Riiiight. Lower your hood and tell 
me that." 

	"Huh?" Rowen reached up and tugged down the forest green hood,
revealing his ragged blue hair and long, pointed ears. 

	"You're an elf!" Jupiter pointed at Rowen accusingly.

	"Yeah," Rowen said sarcastically, "I'd kind of noticed that 
myself. What's your point?" 

	"Archery is second nature to elves. Its in your genes!" 

	"Well, I guess I left my jeans at home." Rowen sneered and 
drew another arrow. Jupiter watched from a respectable distance as the 
arrow was pulled back in his grasp. Sure enough, his whole body was as 
tense as his bowstring. Some kind of performance anxiety, she figured. 
As she had suspected, his shot went wild, and spun out of control into 
yet another nearby tree. 

	"The good news is that for an archer, you're one hell of a 
lumberjack." With a smirk, and having forgotten her original plan of 
pounding on this frustratingly-dense-but-sort-of-cute-in-a-dumb-way 
young stranger, Jupiter walked closer and examined his face critically.
He certainly looked familiar, for some reason, almost like someone she 
should know... Ah, well. "Why are you so nervous, kid?" 

	"Don't call me a kid. I'm only two years younger than you, you 
know!" Rowen got that far, then seemed to run out of steam, sinking 
down and sighing. "I... I just need to be good at this, okay? I need to
be better than my... than anyone! I mean, it's all I have. I can't 
carry a tune in a bucket, nobody trusts me with sharp objects, horses 
bite me, chickens peck me, and in theatre performances, I always play 
the bush. And even then, I managed to sneeze in the middle of 
Endymion's big speech." 
		
	Uh-oh. Jupiter nodded to herself. So, the little guy figured he
was an archer, or nothing, hmmm? Well, no wonder he sucked! And every 
time he failed, the pressure to succeed got even worse, and gauranteed 
he'd fail again. Looked like second son syndrome : her cousin Arashi 
suffered from it too. Parents get so obsessed over the firstborn, they 
ignore the younger one. Hell, as far as his parents were concerned, he 
was probably just a backup in case something happened to the "good" 
son and they needed an heir. Something needed to be done about that, 
and she thought she knew what... 

	"Do it again. I'm going to try something." 

	"Why," Rowen asked dryly, "do I not like the sound of that?" 
However, he shrugged and pulled free yet another shaft. Hey, he 
figured, nothing better to do until Sage wakes up, right? May as well 
make the best out of it. If the best archer on Jupiter can't help me, 
it's a good thing I've been teaching myself swordplay on the sly.

	"Just try to relax, pal. It's okay to make mistakes : your 
parents aren't watching your every move, you know."

	"You don't know Mom and Dad, do you? There's probably three 
elves in that hedge alone : one to spy on me, and two more to spy on 
him." Rowen blew one of his long blue bangs from his eyes and lifted 
the bow again. Jupiter drifted closer as he drew back the arrow, and 
blew in his ear.

	"AWK!" With a shocked yelp, Rowen jumped several feet in the 
air, landing in a crouch and clapping both hands over his ears. "What 
the hells is WRONG with you women? What part of 'leave the ears alone' 
don't you GET?" 

	Jupiter laughed so hard she had to sit on a nearby log, skirts 
frothing around her like an emerald ocean as she cackled into her 
gloved hands. Rowen was beginning to sulk, as he looked around for his 
bow. 

	"I don't see what's so funny. Don't you know about elven ears?"

	"Yup!" Jupiter stopped laughing long enough to catch her breath
and respond. "I thought... it was just... a legend... but did you ever 
JUMP!" She began to giggle again, and coughed into her fist. "Sorry. It
was in good cause... look." She pointed, and Rowen glanced over at the 
target. 

	"That's MY arrow?" The shaft itself seemed to be nodding as it 
shivered in the breeze, sitting firmly in the centre of the bull's-eye.
"Egads," Rowen murmured as he rummaged in his quiver and drew another 
arrow, "I think you may be on to something!" 

	"You have to admit," Jupiter said with a soft chuckle, "it sure
relaxed you pretty quick!"

	"Yeah, well, you'd better watch it. You want to make me glow, 
or something?" Rowen nocked the arrow and squinted as he pulled it 
back. Just relax, he told himself, don't focus at ALL, that's what you 
were doing wrong. Just like pointing your finger at it...

	"Wait a minute." Jupiter was beginning to look like someone had
just told her it was New Year's. "You GLOW?"

	"Nope," Rowen answered quickly as he loosed the arrow and 
watched it whistle into the target, almost directly next to the last 
one. Not too shabby, if he said so himself! "Not me. No glowing. You 
must have heard wrong." 

	"Oh, no! I know what I heard! You specifically said you glow!" 

	"Couldn't have!" Rowen said as he drew and loosed another shot,
barely even bothering to look this time. "I mean, I'm not glowing right
now, am I? If I glowed, wouldn't I be doing it right now? You're 
clearly mistaken, Princess. Elves don't glow. And as an elf, I must not
glow either."

	Jupiter was beginning to look confused. "Wait. But you SAID-"

	"Look. Have you ever seen a glowing elf?" 

	"Well, no..."

	"Then obviously there's no such thing." Rowen smiled to himself
as he scored another bull's-eye. "Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this!
Endymion's NEVER hit three in a row! Don't you think I'm doing well?" 

	Jupiter cast a distracted gaze down at the target. "Yeah, 
you're fantastic. Listen, about the glowing..."

	Rowen groaned and shook his head. "Thanks for the lesson, 
Princess. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around, but I really must
be going. Farewell!" Packing his bow, he trotted down the hill to 
retrieve his arrows. "And I DON'T GLOW!" He added as he yanked the 
shafts free and put them in his quiver.

	Jupiter sat on the log where he had left her, stroking her chin
in thought. "Wow," she muttered to herself, "he glows." Craning her 
neck, Jupiter leaned back on her hands and stared up at the Earth. She 
was still there eight hours later, when Mars came looking to see why 
she had missed supper.

**********

	The doors to Venus' chambers opened and the girl re-entered. 
She glanced over towards her bed, where Sage still lay, and blinked. 
There, her silver gown almost invisible in the dim light that filtered 
through the shutters thrown over every window, was the last person 
Venus had expected to see.

	Queen Serenity looked up from where she was kneeling by the 
bedside and met the Senshi's gaze evenly. "I heard there had been some
kind of incident," she explained, turning her gaze back on the 
slumbering boy, "and I thought I should see the boy who has my entire 
medical staff scrambling around like frightened rabbits. Something 
about how Sailor Venus would take their failure to cure him as a 
personal insult?" 

	Venus blushed slightly and stared at her feet. "I, ah, I 
believe I may have gone slightly overboard in instructing them, my 
Queen." 

	"Nonsense." Serenity smiled blissfully and looked back down at 
the young scribe. "He certainly is a fine boy, isn't he?" She reached 
out, tracing the line of his jaw with one gloved finger. "A handsome 
boy. What is his name, Venus?"

	"Sage, my Queen. He's a scribe, in the Royal Library."

	"Sage?" Serenity smiled again and brushed back a fringe of 
blonde hair from the boy's forehead. "Sage. A fine name. And do you... 
care... for this, this Sage?" 

	Venus began blushing even more fiercely. "I think I might, my 
Queen..."

	"You do NOT." That said, Queen Serenity rose to her feet, 
silver gown frothing around her ankles as she tossed her head, long 
tails of ivory hair whirling back like living things as she glared at 
her subject. "There is nothing you can give that boy, do you 
understand? Your hand belongs to Kunzite..."

	"Then CUT OFF MY HAND AND LET IT BE MARRIED TO HIM!" Venus 
snapped, then gasped as she realised what she had just done. Nobody, 
not even Sailor Venus, raised their voice to the Queen. 

	Serenity frowned slightly, and Venus suddenly knew exactly 
how an ant felt when a boot was looming over its head. "You seem to be 
labouring under a misconception, dear Venus. Your hand belongs to 
Kunzite. Your heart belongs to my daughter, your soul belongs to your 
people, and that is the way of things. We are none of us free, Venus, 
not even myself." Her features softened the smallest amount, as she 
looked back at the boy in the bed. "He is a fine boy," she whispered, 
"and I am sure that you feel for him. Please take my advice. Stop. Now.
It will only cause you pain if you do not." 

	The door to Venus' room creaked open once more, and a gleam of 
silver drifted out into the hallway. "And, Venus?"

	"Yes, My Queen?"

	Serenity spoke softly, her voice full of sorrow and compassion.
"For the sake of the Crown, and all the people of the Moon... I was 
never here. Do you understand?"

	Venus shook her head. "No, My Queen."

	"You do not have to. Just remember that no matter who may ask, 
I was not here." The door closed, and Venus was left alone with a 
mind full of speculation and a great number of questions. 

**********
	
To Be Continued...