Note: I have nothing to do with Sailor Moon and its characters except to be a fan who enjoys the series and the movies very much. This story is my extrapolation of the storylines as received in North America. I apologize if this story doesn't quite fit into the Japanese series.
Jedite lay back and studied the ceiling. He scarcely knew what to make of it all.
Queen Beryl was dead and the Negaverse sealed away for an indefinite length of time. The other generals--Malachite, Zoicite, and Nephlyte--were also dead. He wasn't too upset over the deaths of the first two. Malachite had been an arrogant, egocentric bastard with a twisted sense of pride, and Zoicite had been a jealous, ambitious witch who hadn't known when to advance and when to retreat. What surprised him most was Nephlyte's death.
If there was anyone in the Negaverse who he'd genuinely liked, it had been the brown-haired general. They hadn't always gotten along, but Nephlyte's strong determination and apparently justified reliance on mysticism had earned Jedite's respect. And of course, Nephlyte was definitely better company than that spiteful Zoicite and her oh-so-superior lover Malachite.
It surprised him most that Nephlyte had died protecting a human girl who'd had the audacity to fall in love with him, and from what Darian said, Nephlyte had felt something for the girl as well. From his new position away from the Negaverse, Jedite found he mourned the death of his fellow general yet was glad that Nephlyte had found happiness before he died.
Jedite turned his head and studied Darian where he sat on a chair he'd pulled close. He found it difficult to credit that the former Prince of Earth had nearly become Queen Beryl's consort, trained by Malachite and the Queen in dark magics. Yet there was no other way that Darian could have freed him otherwise; the secret of sealing people away in eternal sleep was an art jealously guarded by the Negaverse and its rulers. As far as he knew, Queen Beryl had been the only one--except perhaps Malachite--yet living who'd known the secret. There had been others before her but she'd been all that remained. For Darian to free him meant that he'd somehow learned the secret, and from what Darian had said, he doubted that Malachite would have told him, if the other general had known at all.
"It's hard to believe," he whispered. "I'm the only one left."
Darian reached out and patted his hand. "I'm afraid so. Mabye if Zoicite hadn't been so jealous Nephlyte would still be around, but..."
Jedite sighed. "I suppose it's all for the better," he said. "At least this way I don't have anything to go back to, really. I can only go forward." He sighed again, then straightened. "Prince Darian, I--"
"Just 'Darian,' please," the other interrupted. "While I'm like this, I'm just plain Darian."
"Darian, then," Jedite said. "I just want to say thank you."
Darian shifted uncomfortably. "You're welcome," he said. "But to be honest, I have an ulterior motive or two for freeing you."
Jedite suddenly felt cold.
Darian must have seen something in his face. "It's nothing like that," he added quickly. "I just meant that by helping you adjust to a Negaverse-free life I'd be alleviating some of my own guilt for serving the Negaverse." His lip twisted into a wry smile. "I also wanted to get one last jab at Beryl by undoing one of her last remaining works by freeing you."
Jedite stared at the other man, then started laughing. It felt good to laugh with something other than sinister satisfaction on his mind. "Well, thank you for still being human enough to want revenge against Beryl!"
Darian laughed along with him for a few moments, then sobered. "Look, before we get more sidetracked, there's something I need to tell you. One of my friends is coming over later this morning to check on you."
Jedite frowned. "To check on me?"
"He's planning on becoming a doctor someday, so I--"
Jedite felt a wave of anger rise in him. "I don't want some inexperienced quack poking around at me!"
Darian stood up. "Andrew is not a quack!" he snapped. "Would you rather I have taken you to a hospital and let real doctors find out you weren't exactly a human from Earth? In case you don't realize it yet, I have no idea what color your blood is. Nephlyte's blood was green, if I recall correctly, and I'm sure you'd much rather have an amateur's initial opinion that kept you out of the hospital than being poked and prodded and eventually carted off to some scientific laboratory when they realized you were different from ordinary humans!"
Jedite stared at the angry former prince. He felt his own anger dissipate before a wave of remorse and embarassment. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't really mean that your friend's a quack. I just--" He tried to go on, then flushed when he couldn't find the words to say.
Darian seemed to understand. "I'm sorry, too," he said, sitting down again. "It's just that I don't have so many friends that I'll let someone bad mouth them. As much as I'd like to be your friend, I won't let you belittle Andrew in any way."
Jedite sighed. "I understand. I'll try to think things through more carefully before I speak. I guess a part of my Negaverse training is still in me."
Darian nodded. "I understand, too. I'll try to make allowances for--"
Jedite shook his head. "No, don't make allowances. If I lapse into my former ways, I want you to call me on it. I have to set my past behind me and move on with my life." He suddenly felt nervous and knew that a flush was rising in his cheeks. "I'd like you to help me, Darian," he added softly. He looked up.
Darian was also flushing. "I'll be with you every step of the way," he said. "You aren't alone in this."
You are never alone. Queen Serenity's words echoed in his mind. Was Darian the one who'd help him atone for his crimes? He must be. No one else could truly understand what he was going through.
"Now as I was saying," Darian continued, "my friend's coming in to check on you. We need to work out a decent story to account for your presence here. I told him before that--" Darian broke off as they both heard his doorbell chime.
"Damn," Darian muttered. "He's here early." He stood up and started to leave. "Look, I'll try to throw hints to you about what to say," he said, his voice trailing away as he strode down the hallway.
Jedite sighed, wondering what he'd gotten himself into.
Darian appeared a minute or two later with another young man--Andrew, he surmised--behind him. While Darian had dark hair, this other man had light brown hair. He also seemed more given to smiling and cheerfulness than the prince.
Just now, though, he was scrutinizing Jedite closely enough to make him feel nervous. "Well, you seem to be doing all right," he said shortly. "I don't think you need to go to a hospital or anything." He turned to Darian. "Now will you please explain to me about this so-called cousin of yours and why he appeared so suddenly after years of silence?"
Jedite stared at Darian over Andrew's shoulder. Cousin? Seeing an air of panic rising in Darian's face, Jedite decided to take the initiative. He crossed his arms and looked away. "I suppose I should thank you," he said curtly, "for giving me a clean bill of health." He turned and glared at a surprised and immediately suspicious Andrew. "I'd like to know who I'm thanking, though."
Darian clapped his hand to his forehead. "That's right," he said, shooting a relieved smile at him. "I haven't really introduced you. Jed," he said, emphasizing the shortened name, "this is Andrew. He manages an arcade nearby. Andrew, this is my cousin, Jed." This time he emphasized the word "cousin."
"I'm please to meet you, Jed," Andrew said, but his voice was still cool.
"Likewise, I'm sure."
"Darian says you're his cousin?"
"I am."
"Do you mind explaining your relationship to me?" Andrew demanded. "He hasn't exactly been forthcoming with details."
"I told you, Andrew," Darian protested, "I don't fully understand myself. You know I can't remember anything from before the car accident." He fell silent at a sharp gesture from Andrew.
Jedite caught at the information. He knew exactly what to do now.
"Well," he said, drawing Andrew's attention to himself, "don't look to me for all the answers. I don't have them all myself. I can only tell you what I know."
"Please," Andrew said, giving him a chilly smile. "Do tell us."
Jedite smiled inwardly. He was going to have fun with this.
"Let's see," he mused, "where should I begin? Okay, here we go. Before Darian and I were born, our parents had a fight. My father was Darian's mother's brother. The fight, as I understand it, was about her marrying Darian's father. The end result was that our two families never spoke to each other. I didn't even know about Darian until recently, after my father died." He saw something in Andrew's eyes soften slightly and decided to play on it.
"That was about six months ago. My mother decided that it was time to put the past behind us and reconcile with Darian's parents. When she tried to get in touch with them, though, she couldn't locate them. We did a little investigating and discovered that Darian's parents had died in a car accident over a decade ago."
"Why didn't your parents know about it sooner?" Darian asked softly. Andrew and Jedite both stared at him. Jedite was slightly confused that Darian would be asking about it until he remembered his earlier comment about not remembering anything happening before some sort of accident. In that context, Darian's question made sense. He saw that Andrew had come to the same conclusion.
"We were out of the country at the time," he said. "My father had been sent to America by his company, and my mother and I had gone along. We came back about a year later and moved to Hokkaido. I don't know why no one contacted my father about his sister's death. Maybe no one knew of the relationship. Or maybe they did tell him but he kept the knowledge to himself. I don't know, and I can't ask him now."
"How did you know about Darian?" Andrew asked.
"From my mother," Jedite said. "She knew about Darian because Darian's mother had sent her a postcard announcing his birth. That was the first and only correspondence she'd received, except for the postcard she'd sent back announcing my birth. When we found out that only two adults had died in the accident, we deduced that Darian had survived and been placed in an orphanage. We tried to track you down that way, but I got as far as tracing you to Tokyo before we lost the trail."
"And now?" Andrew asked. "How did you find him? And how did you end up so exhausted?"
Jedite sighed. "I came to Tokyo to see if I could find him on foot. I had a picture of his parents and, thanks to a computer-whiz friend of mine, came up with a composite of what he most likely looked like." He pointed to Darian. "The composite looked exactly like that. He's the exact image of his father except that his eyes are his mother's." He sighed again. "I wish I could show you the pictures, but I lost the composite a week ago and the other pictures are back home."
"I never thought of that," Darian said, turning to Andrew. "I could have asked Amy to the same thing in reverse."
Andrew nodded. "How did you end up so tired and exhausted, and how did you find Darian?"
"Dumb luck, I guess," Jedite said, smiling slightly. "I'd only brought enough money with me to stay in Tokyo for a month to do the searching. I was just about to give up and head home when I spotted Darian outside a restaurant. He was the only one I'd seen in Tokyo who at all resembled the picture, so I started following him. I trailed him into a store and happened to hear his name when he was talking to the clerk."
"A store?" Andrew asked dubiously.
"Was it a bookstore by any chance?" Darian asked, giving a warning nod of his head.
"Yes," Jedite said. Andrew didn't seem disposed to accept such a terse answer, so he added quickly, "He had this big book with him. I think it was about the moon or something like that." Something in Andrew's startled expression told him he'd said something appropriate.
"As to why I was so tired," Jedite continued, "I haven't had a place to sleep for two nights. I used the last of my funds while I followed Darian around. Last night," he paused, glancing at Darian, "or the night before last, I was too tired to go on, so I decided to confront Darian." He laughed weakly. "I didn't expect to collapse in the process."
Andrew studied him a moment longer, then smiled. "I believe you," he said. "I'm sorry I was being so suspicious, but I had to be." He glanced over his shoulder at Darian, then turned back, a mischevious twinkle in his eyes. "Darian is my best friend and all, but sometimes he can be rather dense and naive. I didn't want someone to take advantage of him."
"Who are you calling 'dense,' Andrew?" Darian said in mock anger, but he was smiling.
Jedite felt a slight pang of jealousy, coupled with sadness. There was a strong bond between the two young men before him. Their friendship was long in the making and they cared deeply about each other, enough to protect each other from strangers and criticisms. He longed for a friendship like theirs, but he feared he'd always be alone.
You are not alone.
The Queen's voice echoed in his mind. He tried to take comfort in it, but it was hard.
"Hey, Rita's coming back?" Darian said suddenly, distracting Jedite from his bleak thoughts. "That's great, Andrew!" He turned to Jedite. "Rita is Andrew's girlfriend, Jed," he explained. "She's been in Africa doing field research."
"Yeah, she's coming back tonight," Andrew said. He was in such raptures that it was almost embarassing to see him like that. Almost, but Jedite found it interesting. He'd known about the human emotion of love, but he'd never really witnessed the power it exerted over humans.
Andrew blinked, and the vapid, lovestruck expression vanished. "Hey, I have an idea," he said. "Jed, how much sightseeing did you do in Tokyo?"
Jedite blinked. "Sightseeing?" He scrambled for a good answer. "Well, I went to some notable places, but I didn't really notice them. I was too busy studying faces to find Darian."
Andrew turned to Darian. "How about we get together late tomorrow morning?" he asked. "I'll bring Rita along, and the four of us can do some sightseeing together. We can stop for lunch somewhere, do some more sightseeing, then go out to dinner. What do you think?" He looked back at Jed.
"That's a great idea, Andrew," Darian said. "How about it, Cousin Jed? Do you think you're up to it?"
Jedite felt something in his chest tighten. It was really odd. He felt happy, yet a part of him wanted to cry. A little while ago he'd been completely friendless without a place in the world. Then he'd been offered the friendship of a former enemy who had more than enough reason to hate him. Now here was a complete stranger--well, not complete anymore since he knew Andrew's name--offering his friendship to someone he had no reason to trust.
"Jed, is something wrong?" Darian asked, starting forward.
Jedite shook his head. "No, I'm fine." He looked up at Andrew. "If you don't mind being stuck with a tourist," he said, "I'd love to take in the sights." He paused and thought for a moment as something occured to him. "But only if your girlfriend is up to it." He didn't know everything about human relationships, but he knew enough to know that Rita might not want to share Andrew so soon after returning to Japan.
"It's a deal," Andrew said. "I'll ask her tonight when I pick her up, and I'll call Darian tomorrow morning." He looked at Darian. "Okay?"
Darian nodded. "Sure."
Andrew looked at his watch and stood up. "Listen, I have to get back to the arcade. You take it easy, Jed, okay?"
Jedite nodded. "Okay. And, thanks, Andrew." A memory about human customs rose in his mind. He stuck his hand out.
Andrew shook it. "You're welcome," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"
"I'll walk you out, Andrew," Darian said, smiling at Jedite.
Jedite watched the two young men leave the room, then slipped his hands behind his head and leaned back to study the ceiling.
He didn't know why he felt the way he did, and he didn't care. He was happy for the first time in a very long time, and he intended to stay happy for as long as possible. And more than anything else, he fully intended to remain worthy of his new friends' trust in him.
No matter what it took.
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