Last Time in the Phoenix Knight series.... Download or find the Reawakening of Heroism and Legend of the Phoenix series' to find out. And now: Son of the Sun: Last of a Legacy part 1 "I'm glad you all finally got here." Chris, Mina, Rei, Ami, and Lita were standing outside the temple. Rei fretted. "Where's Serena? I swear, she's always so late! When she finally gets here, I'm going to..." "Calm down Rei!" Chris said. "Terra isn't here either. Something must have happened." There was a sudden huffing from the stairs leading up to the temple. All eyes turned toward it as Serena came running up, burning up the ground behind her with Terra following closely behind her. "Sorry I'mlate!" She collapsed almost as soon as she reached the top of the stairs. "About time Serena, we've been waiting 10 minutes for you!" Rei berated her. "Sorry...detention..." "That's not an excuse anymore! Terra's living with you! You should be up and..." "Calm down, Rei. Chris called us here pretty quick, it isn't her fault!" Terra quickly cut in, she didn't feel like having to go through another of Rei and Serena's screaming fits. "I didn't wake up this morning for some reason." "Yeah, Chris, why DID you call us here so quickly after school?" Lita seemed curious. "My thoughts exactly." Mina finished. All eyes turned to Chris, who sighed. "It's about the Phoenix Knight. For some reason, he feels indebted to me, as well as Mina and the rest of you. He told me about his past." Everyone was silent a few seconds, then Mina spoke up. "Well, what did he say?" "Well, this is going to seem a bit far-fetched.... The Sailors sat dumbfounded. "Millennia? Just trying to get back here?" Serena was the first to speak. Chris nodded. "That's what he told me. I'm not one to believe a story like that, but he seemed so convinced of it...I don't know whether to believe him or not." What no one noticed was a white crane sitting in the tree above them, listening to every word they said. Terra had looked up while Chris was telling the story, as if she sensed something, but really hadn't payed the avian any attention. Which is exactly what she wanted. The only one paying her any attention was one of Rei's crows, Phobos, and he was getting a little too close... I wonder if anyone would recognize me? The bird thought. I don't think I've ever met any of them. She whispered to the crow fiercely. "Shoo! Get lost!" She heard Luna speak up. "Someone should go talk to him. Perhaps there's a way around Metallia's curse." Artemis jumped in. "I agree, find out what happened, and try to figure out how to beat it!" The others looked at them like they'd grown an extra head. Except for Terra. "How would you find him?" She inquired. Mina looked at her sister. "What if he loses it again? You could be hurt!" Chris answered. "I'll go with her." Terra looked at both of them with disbelief. "You don't think I can take care of myself?" Mina shot back. "No, it's just that we...uh..." Chris finished for her. "We don't think you can take care of John if he goes awry again." Terra looked solemn. "I don't believe he was in his right mind when he attacked Chris. He isn't an evil person! I-it's just not possible for someone like him to be that way!" Phobos was getting a little too close to the crane for comfort again, so she pecked at him, driving him back a bit. "They have a point, remember what happened when he attacked Chris, the only reason he got out alive was that Mina almost died to save him." Lita brought up. I don't believe you could even THINK he was that way!" Then she took off, dragging Luna along. ---------------------------- Rei wondered why Terra had gotten so mad, when she heard a strange noise. It was like...two screeching voices, only more animal... "MAN EATING TREE!" Serena screamed and dove away from one of the trees closest to the temple. Rei turned and saw that one of the trees was indeed moving, but nothing sinister. One of her crows, Phobos, was cawing like mad, after another bird. Looked like a crane, but she couldn't get a good vantage point. She rushed to get a broom from the temple, but got back a little too late. The bird was a crane, all right, and it had to have beaten whichever crow had attacked it away. Then Rei remembered something: no crane ever landed at the temple before. "Where did you come from?" She wondered aloud. Chris spoke up now, still annoyed from Terra's departure. "You think it's going to talk to you and answer? To Chris', Rei's, and everyone else's surprise, it did. --------------------- "I came from exactly where you came from, but a few thousand years more." She looked at Chris. "And I am not an 'it' Christopher, I am a 'she.'" She had their attention. Chris commented. "A talking bird. What else can happen?" "A lot, and it will happen. But you all have a question, I can see it on your faces. I am Callina, retainer of the Prince of Atlantis." Chris sighed. "So, you belong to John?" This caught Callina off guard. He'd already told them about his past, his battle with Metallia and his time away from Earth? "Well...yes. He sent me here to ask for a meeting with you." If John was going to make her job harder, she was going to make his harder as well. "How would we know we could trust him?" Mina sounded more than a little nervous. *The same question I asked myself every day for 3 years. I can remember him from the Moon Kingdom only vaguely myself, but they can't remember him at all.* "You wouldn't. The same way I find a way to take comfort that he was once my friend and has never betrayed me." That didn't answer her question, Callina knew, but at least it would SOUND like it did. "So he was a prince?" Lita asked. Callina clarified that. "Son to the Lord of Atlantis." Ami answered. "It WOULD explain why he was betrothed to Mina...I doubted a simple warrior would have been chosen to marry a princess." "The Phoenix Knights were NOT 'simple warriors'! They were the BEST of the best! Do you know how LONG it took to train as a Phoenix Knight? 500 YEARS!" All present stared at Callina. Oops! Not something to do, have an outburst like that while trying to form an alliance... Some of the color had drained from Ami's face. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't know!" Callina calmed herself. "No, that was something I could have avoided. It was my fault. But would you want him to come?" ----------------------------- Serena was adamant. "I say we let him come." Ami apparently wanted to learn about the lost continent, "Same here." "I'd like to find out more about the past, I'm in for him to come." Lita voiced. Apollo spoke against them. "I'm still not up for trusting this guy just yet." Artemis agreed. "We don't know if we can trust him yet, Apollo's right." Serena eyed him. "I thought YOU were up for going to see him?" Artemis looked back. "To find a way to stop this memory-wipe we all have! I want to get an idea of what he was like during the Silver Millennium before I trust him. And I don't trust ANYTHING I don't understand" Callina looked at Artemis with annoyance. Artemis noticed and stared back. "What? You're telling me to believe that he definitively was a friend to all of us? I doubt it." Callina abruptly broke the stare. Rei was still unsure of which way to vote. Mina spoke out. "I don't want him coming near me! Or Chris either!" Chris looked at her. "Min, I think we might want to hear what he says." Mina looked at him, shaken. "Wh-what? What if he attacks again? What if he tries to kill you? Chris answered. "I know his moves, his attack, and there won't be anyone around trying to mess me up with mind control this time." Mina looked at him like he'd betrayed her. Lita chimed in. "And it is Chris he was going to kill..." Callina interrupted. "TRIED to kill." "Whatever," She turned back to Mina. "But he can hold his own in battle." Mina looked at her, eyes almost to the breaking point with tears. "I know...but..I just don't want anything to happen to him..." Chris stood and hugged her. "Min, remember, I took him before, I can do it again. And all of you are here too, I'll be fine." Mina hugged him back and turned to Callina. "What would he want to say? Why does he want to talk to us?" Callina said nothing for a second, then spoke up. "I don't know." Rei finally decided on what she was going to say. She turned to Callina. "Tell him that he can come, but if he tries ANYTHING he WILL be sorry. Because he will have to get though ME first!" ---------------------------- John was laying on his living room couch, staring at the ceiling. What is wrong with me? He thought, I've faced cyclopses, medusae, evil clones, doppelgangers, demons, and horrors beyond belief, and that used to be a typical morning! He sighed. This was different. "I've never been dishonored in anyone's eyes before!" He contemplated aloud. "It's always been 'the Honorable Phoenix Knight' or 'the Honorable Lord Johan'! Never dishonored! NEVER!" Then he remembered his composure thousands of years ago. And sighed, he couldn't even convince himself. He was a cocky, arrogant, immature knight then, and still had some of those traits left.. His behavior on the Moon was nowhere near honorable, though it was told so by his mother... The doorbell rang, and he wondered who it could be. "It had better not be Callie with one of the Sailors...I can't face that yet." He went to it, after pulling his silver hair back into a semi-neat ponytail. He took in a deep breath, let it out, and opened the door. ----------------------- Terra was amazed at the size of the house. It was at least a two-family, had a nice front yard, and if her intuition was right, a large backyard too. She felt Mina's pleading in her mind. ::Terra, please! As your sister, don't do this! If you're hurt, I'll never forgive myself!:: ::I have to. And it is MY decision, I'm sorry.:: With that she blocked any further communication from her mind. "Impressive. Wonder how he could afford it?" "Remember why we're here." Luna commented from around her neck. "Right, I want to find out why he's here." "If we just stand here, maybe he'll notice in a few hours." Terra rang the doorbell, and a few moments later, John answered. He didn't look horrible: his clothes were decent, his hair was sort of neat, but he looked...worn out. "P-princess Terra!" Were his first words, with them came a salute and a shot-up stand at attention. "Listen, I have to talk to you. At ease." His face took on a more serious look and he relaxed a bit, but his tone showed he was nervous as anything.. "Of course, this way." He led her into his living room. It was larger than it looked from the outside. The front window was large enough to provide a view of the house across the street, there was a couch against the wall across from her entryway and one under the window, and across from the window was a large television. "So, what did you need to talk to me about?" His voice was calm enough. She kept her voice equally calm. "I want to know why you came back." He looked puzzled. This was the point where Terra noticed John was not with proper form for a knight. He seemed... "Why did I come back? If you were light years, MILLENNIA away from your home, where would you head to? Oblivion? Or perhaps back where you had people you knew and a promise to keep." Terra hadn't realized how impassioned he was about getting back, but now that he had...he kept going. John clenched his fist in the air between them and held it. "After my battle with Metallia, I was lost. I spent years sitting around someplace doing nothing when I realized something: that was EXACTLY what she wanted me to do. Forget my life, my family, friends, and duty. Her manipulations might even have worked had it not been for my memory and my yearning for my home world. I was going to show her that no matter how hard she tried, good WOULD triumph over evil in the end." He let his fist drop. "But when I finally returned, none of you had yet appeared. I waited for 3 years, thinking of what I would do and say...but THIS, this was not what I expected to happen at all..." Terra felt a pang of sympathy for him. He'd had his heart wrenched out, then found it, replaced it, and had it yet again destroyed. "If you want to know why I attacked Chris, I will tell you: I don't know. I have lived longer than any other before me. Perhaps it was that I was so enamored with finally seeing Mina again that I kept it inside me for so long until it solidified into a set objective. An objective that took me near enough to the edge of an abyss of pain and destruction so that I could stare down into it's murky blackness. An objective that could only be stopped by the one who started it." Terra felt enlightened. "So when Mina slapped you, your mind finally registered and told you that you would never have her!" John nodded solemnly. "Yes. Either that, or Metallia planted a self-destruct in me when she cast her spell. When I finally reached the object of my desire, I would destroy all I held dear, including myself." This sent a chill down Terra's spine, and she felt Luna shudder as well. Metallia WOULD do that...pure evil knew no sympathy. "And if that IS the case, I cannot be trusted. And if I cannot be trusted, I am worthless." ------------------------ "Fenix!" The dark master called from his throne room. The Fenix Knight, his bat wings partially regenerated, his face and hands almost normal color again, crawled in. "Yes my master, creator too, How may I, your servant, serve you?" The dark master smiled inwardly, it was good to be ruler. "What is the status on the surprise we have planned for our friend the Phoenix Knight?" He enjoyed the tightening of the Fenix Knight's features with his arch-nemesis' name. "The project we have started seems, Growing well as thought we, Victim of his own desire, Burned in his primeval fire!" "Very good. I put you in charge of it." The Fenix Knight nodded and left. And again, the dark master smiled. Turning around, facing the wall behind the throne, the eye floated through a hidden portal... ...into a room carved of solid bone. Ever-burning candles lit the 4 corners of the room. An altar of bone grew up out of the floor of the room in the very center. It flowed upward to form a bowl at the top. The bowl was filled with some sort of liquid, it looked black in the dim lightning of the room. Free to not be menacing, the dark master turned to a liquid state and flowed into a humanoid shape. His eyes were a matched blazing red, the rest of his body was draped in black robes. His face was strikingly handsome, and his hair was short and red. "Ah..." he cracked his neck, "much better." he walked to the far side of the room, flicked his hand, and a mirrored surface . He chanted in an obscure language, and the image instantly shifted to an aerial view of Tokyo. "Now, who do I want to look at?" The image shifted again, to John's block, then to his house, then to the front door. When he was going to look inside, the mirror cracked and he felt a great pain run through his entire being. The room itself groaned. "So, PK, you've magically sealed your house to scrying? Well, we'll have to eliminate that problem by getting someone IN your house. Then I can see if you still have my scepter or not, and if you do, you WILL be sorry." ---------------------- Nothing to say. E-mail me with questions, comments, yada, yada, yada.