The Dark Princess

Disclaimer: I do not own any SM characters. Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, Kodansha Comics and DiC (Disney) own them... I do own the "made-up" characters of Alexandrite and any others Naoko didn't use in her manga and the plot of this story... so don't you DARE steal them!
Author's notes: This story may waver a bit from Naoko's timeline... as in some people of a future episode/chapter of the manga may show up periodically... sorry but it's the story as I see it so it's written that way. ^_^ Also, please feel free to send comments and submits of your own fan-fics to my e-mail addy: queenalexandrite@hotmail.com or kgirlvh@rocketmail.com.

Prologue         The tiny baby's silence was only noticeable because any other child would be screaming from the sound of the storm she was carried through. The slender figure carrying her was shrouded in a cloak and hood, only a tiny wisp of yellow hair slipped out from the hood. She slipped quickly out of the stormy clearing into a forested grove.
        The thicket of the grove was a little drier. A tall figure was standing in the shadows. The smaller figure cloaked in dark cloth handed the silent bundle to the one cloaked in shadows. The hooded person muttered something softly and the shadowed one nodded briefly, then the slender cloaked figure teleported in a golden flash, leaving the other one with the bundle, which started to scream as the lightning got louder and flashed nearby.
        Three years later, one of the four lower Kings of Earth, Malachite, disappeared, so did the other three, but Malachite was more noticeably missed, because the young child he was raising was gone as well. No one knew where they had gone, it seemed he and the young one had left Earth completely...

        "Grr.... That kid's been screaming her head off all damn day!" Jedite groaned and held his throbbing temples.
        "She's three years old, what do you want? Fluent orders?" Nephrite sighed and Zoisite merely smirked. The little kid could do more than scream for what she wanted, but she'd quickly learned that screaming got it faster. Especially when people had headaches.
        "I'd prefer her to put a plug in it!" Jedite growled and stormed off to a quieter place.
        "Poor Jeddy. I can tell already that kid's gonna be the cause of a hell of a lot of his headaches." Zoisite said and giggled, then went off towards the sound of the bratty yelling. *************************************         "You can stop now... he's off with an ice pack on his head..." Zoisite said to the little blond brat yelling her head off in a pitch way too high for a three year old.
        The screaming stopped abruptly with an evil sort of giggle. "Good." the kid said and smiled sweetly.
        "Why do you annoy him like that?"
        "Cuz it's fun." the three year old youma kid said and shrugged.
        "Well I have to agree with that." Zoisite said and smiled as Malachite came up to them.
        "Now what were you screaming about?" he asked.
        "Um... I ferget..." she answered and blinked. Malachite sighed and shook his head, rolling his eyes.
        "I swear if you weren't so small I'd backhand you for that." Malachite snarled.
        The blond child blew a raspberry at him and crossed her little arms. "You'd hafta catch me first!"
        Malachite growled and crossed his arms. "Wouldn't be hard... you've got little stems for legs. Aren't you supposed to be in the growth chamber for another half hour?"
        The little girl winced. "It hurts!"
        "It will make you older and stronger. And less of a brat... I hope."
        "I like her this way. She'll be more formidable." Zoisite said helpfully.
        "Yeah sure... unfortunately the Senshi are all much more than twice her age... she needs to be older."
        "But it hurts!!!" The child whined again.
        "Can't you make it hurt her less? She'll despise you if you make her do something that hurts so much." Zoisite asked kneeling and hugging the little girl who sniffled.
        "She needs to develop an immunity to pain." Malachite said coldly.
        "At three years old?" Zoi asked incredulously.
        "She'll be older soon." Malachite said and picked the child up roughly by her arm, then cradling her a bit more gently. "Come on, Alexandrite." Zoi sighed and looked away as the girl was carried away and started screaming again... this time for a reason. *************************************         A few months later, a seven year old girl took the place of the whining three year old. She still screamed her head off , but only when she was angry, and the scream was followed by a blast of energy. Her wide open blue eyes were always narrowed with anger and hate, and glimmered another color every few moments.
        She wasn't wearing her little toddler clothes anymore, but a black dress that was almost too long for her. Her hair was back and up in a solitary braid. There had been attempts to style her hair in bunned pigtails, to imitate the moon princess, who she'd been claimed the opposite of; but she'd bitten and clawed so many people that it became apparent that she controlled her hair and no one else.
        "Where are you going, Alex?" Zoisite asked as the sullen girl stormed off down a hallway.
        "Nowhere." she answered and kept going. She'd been warmer to Zoi before... but after Metallia's chamber had aged her those four years so quickly, her mental state had aged and she'd become as cold as her father. She bumped Jedite and he growled as she kept walking by with her head up high as if she hadn't noticed him.
        "What's up with her?" Jedite huffed. "She's an even bigger brat now."
        "I haven't the slightest." Zoisite lied. **************************************         The throne room was dark... even Beryl wasn't there, a rare occasion that Alexandrite couldn't help but take advantage of. She crept cautiously into the room and listened for a few moments to the doorway before going further into the room. She'd lost her child-like innocence in that chamber, but not her curiosity. She'd heard voices in there when Beryl was alone and wanted to know who else was there.
        "Hello?" she asked shyly.
        Silence greeted the young girl.
        "Damn. I guess there really is no one here..." she sighed and decided not to let it be a total waste of time. She walked quietly and calmly over to the hideous throne and looked instinctively towards the door to check for any intruders before reaching her hand cautiously to the arm of the throne...
        "What are you doing?" a voice asked suddenly. Alex spun around on her heels and blinked innocently, ready to lie through her teeth. No one was there.
        "Humph... Okay.... who's hiding here?" Alex asked, hands on her hips, trying to look as important as possible. Technically she was allowed in there alone, since she was named Princess of the Dark Kingdom... but no one else was. And no one answered. Alex sighed and pouted, looking at that moment younger than seven and closer to the three year old she should have been. She turned back to the throne and poked the arm of it.
        "You shouldn't touch that, child." Again Alex spun and again no one was there.
        "Who's out there?" Alex demanded, loudly this time. "Where are you?"
        "Right behind you. And beside you, and all around." Alex gasped and spun behind her, just then noticing the colored mass behind the throne.
        "Sick! Who are you?" Alex said in her typical child-like disregard for respect. Better yet... what? she thought to herself.
        "That's not your concern. What are you doing here?"
        "None of your business... I'm the princess, I go where I like!" Alex huffed and looked down her little nose at the form.
        "Obviously you don't know a thing about manners. Malachite should have taught you better."
        "I don't listen to him. Or anyone." Alex glanced at the doorway and heard footsteps. "Aw great." She ran behind the throne, forgetting about the mass and the fact that that could be a terrible place to hide.
        She peeked around the throne just as Beryl and Malachite came in. Beryl was telling him the same thing the "thing" behind the throne had told Alex. That she was too wild and needed to be taught manners.
        "I don't care how you do it... just teach that brat how to behave before the others get here." Beryl said.
        Others? Alex wondered to herself, What others? Who's coming here? Who'd want to? Alex listened quietly, hoping that the thing would not tell Beryl she was hiding back there. Surprisingly, it kept as quiet as her.
        "I'm sorry, my Queen. She'll be a little older soon, perhaps she'll be better behaved." Malachite said reasonably.
        Older? Oh no! He better not put me back in that thing again! Alex thought fiercely, the thing behind her seemed to feel stronger as Alex got angry and afraid at the same time.
        "She's no better now that she was at three. It's not the age, it's the attitude. Straighten her up. Put her in training." Beryl ordered. "Immediately."
        "Yes my Queen..." Malachite agreed and bowed, then teleported away in a flash. Alex knew he'd be going to her room and she'd be caught, especially if he asked Zoi and heard that she'd been heading towards the throne. She looked around desperately, then heard a voice in her head: A door in the back of the room, just to the right, run to it while Beryl was preoccupied with steaming over Alex's attitude problem. Alex took a deep breath and tore off like a flash of gold, her little feet almost never touching the ground. **********************************************         "Alexandrite!" her father's voice bellowed in the doorway. Alex sat up weakly in her bed, rubbing fake sleep from her eyes.
        "Yes daddy?" she said wearily and blinked.
        "Get into sturdier clothes. You're in training now." Malachite said coldly and forcefully, then left.
        Alex frowned and felt some bit of relief that she was not going into the growth chamber again. "Yes daddy." she said, even though he'd left.
        Alex trudged her little seven year old body into the training hall, wearing black leggings and a black and silver shirt. She didn't like to wear anything but black. Her hair was loose and hung like her father's. When Jedite saw her walk in, he cursed.
        "Hell no. I am not fighting her!"
        "Relax Jedite. You don't fight her yet..." Malachite said calmly. Jedite sighed. "She needs to get stronger first." Jedite gasped and fainted dead on the floor. Zoisite laughed and Nephrite smirked.
        "So who is she fighting, Mal?" Nephrite asked.
        "Herself. She needs to realize her power." Malachite said and pointed to a wall. "Alexandrite. Blast it."
        Alex looked up at her father's order and pouted. "I don't wanna."
        "DO IT!" he roared.
        Alex gasped and stepped to face the wall. She still pouted, but she gathered a bit of energy.
        "More than that."
        Alex gathered a ball a bit larger.
        "More."
        Alex concentrated harder and the ball grew a fraction more. A trickle of sweat slipped down plastering her bangs to her forehead.
        "More, you're not concentrating hard enough!"
        Alex pouted and fought off a headache as she called up a ball of energy twice the size of her hand. Malachite nodded and she threw it at the wall. A large hole was left in the wall when the dust cleared, and Alex swooned on her feet, she was caught by Zoisite just before she fainted.
        "Good, but you could have done better." Malachite said coldly. "I want that wall gone next time." He left quickly without another word. Alex gasped for breath and growled at him under her breath just before her tiny body gave out and her mind went black. *******************************************         Alex woke up in her own bed, with Zoisite sitting worriedly in a chair near the bedside. "Are you okay, kid?" he asked.
        Alex groaned and held her throbbing head. " I-I think so. What happened?"
        "Malachite made you do more than your body could handle." Zoisite answered quietly and sighed. " I thought you'd died or gone into a coma the way you blacked out like that."
        "I thought I died when I released that energy... and he wants me to use more?" Alex asked and leaned back on the headboard.
        " I don't think he realizes that a seven year old body can't handle draining, holding, and blasting that much energy out." Zoisite sighed and brushed a stray piece of hair from the little girl's forehead, noticing that her breath was still a little ragged.
        "Zoi-chan?"
        "Yes, sweetie?"
        "Who's coming here? I heard Beryl say that there are "others" coming." Alex said softly.
        "You've been spying again." Zoi smirked. "A prince. And no you don't know him, or the boy he's bringing."
        "Why's he bringing a kid?"
        "I don't know. I just know he's bringing one." Zoisite said and shrugged. "And I think the kid's your age. Maybe younger. You can train with him..."
        "More training? No thanks." Alex groaned and closed her eyes. Zoisite laughed and left Alex to sleep. **********************************************         Much to Alex's protests and screaming, she was forced into the growth chamber again. This time it was only a three year growth, to strengthen her body so she could use more energy. Alex was getting colder and colder, and her eyes were darkening steadily. Her ten year old body was taller, but her vigorous training started to give her a slight muscle tone. Her hair was longer too, it reached to her waist, but she still insisted to keep it back in a braid.
        "Alex!" Zoisite called.
        "What?"
        "Sorry, sweetie, but you're not allowed in the throne room right now. Beryl's meeting that prince and the kid today."
        "But..." Alex pouted. She'd always been allowed free run... and she wanted to see this prince guy.
        "Sorry, kid." Zoisite said and ruffled her bangs. Then he went in and left Alex sulking outside the door. Suddenly Alex remembered something and ran off down a secret path. **********************************************          Alexandrite peeked through a crack in her secret door in the back of the throne room. It would be a quick dash to the back of the throne, but would she be spotted? She glanced at the people in the room.
        Malachite was by the throne. Zoisite was, naturally, right beside him. Zoisite wouldn't call her presence to attention, but her father would snap at her and send her right back out if he saw her. Jedite and Nephrite were off to one side, Jeddy would love to grab any opportunity to get her in trouble. She'd been taking out her anger on him in the training room, and in the hallways when no one else was nearby. There were two strangers in front of the throne. What would they say if they spotted her sneaking behind the throne?
        The younger one with dark hair and lighter streaks probably wouldn't have the brains to call her to attention... he was too young. But the older man with silver white hair like her father, but shorter and wilder, probably would snap at her just like he would. She sighed. Did she dare risk it? She saw lips moving, but was too far away to hear the words. Her curiosity and the indignity of having to sneak in in the first place gave her the nerve to sneak quickly behind the throne.
        The tall man with white hair glanced off quickly out of instinct at seeing the flash of silver gold. He narrowed his violet eyes at the pretty little ten year old girl creeping behind the throne. Then he realized she was hiding back there, curious about things she'd been left out of and he stayed silent, but amused that the Generals weren't quick of sight enough to notice someone sneaking behind their Queen. He didn't know that Nephrite had seen her too and winked at Zoisite to tell him that the kid was there.
        Alex stared at the white-haired man with violet eyes. He had an odd mark on his forehead, it was permanent instead of flashing when he got angry or gathered energy. The young boy with him had the same mark... a black inverted moon, like her gold one. It perplexed her and made her very curious about who the heck these guys were. For some reason the way the older one looked at her when he was able to sneak a glance to her gave her shivers and made her upset.
        Alex took a deep breath and tore her gaze off him and glanced at the boy who looked a few years younger than her. He was cute, for a kid with a weird mark on his head... She smiled and wondered why she wasn't allowed to come and meet them. Although she'd seen enough of the older guy to last her a lifetime already, she wanted to talk to the little boy. She paid close attention to the conversation, but she wasn't mentioned except by Jedite, who'd been sore in all meanings of the word from her last training session. He'd said some comments about her ice blasts (which would explain his nearly numb rear end...) and gotten laughed at by Zoisite and growled at by Malachite. The strange man simply smirked about it and continued the conversation.
        Alex watched intently, seriously thinking of something to do to Jedite, but when the boy left, he did it before she could, causing Jeddy to slip on a puddle of ice. She grimaced and heard him blame her for it. Maybe she'd been a little hasty about the kid. He was good, but he was nosing in on her punching bag. She frowned and snuck out quickly again. *************************************************         Alex got to the training room and started blasting random Youmas, one was blasted so badly he ran out yelling and cursing at her. He ran into the strange man from the throne room and made him yell and jump back. Malachite came in behind him and yelled at her.
        "ALEXANDRITE! I told you to treat those people with more respect. They are not punching bags!"
        "You let me treat Jedite like that!" she argued. "Besides what would you know about respect? You treat me like a kid."
        "That's different. And you are a kid!"
        "I won't be much longer, will I, daddy? You're gonna put me back in that thing sooner or later..." Alex snarled and stormed out past the stranger, nearly missing the amused glance he gave her.
        "What was that about?" he asked Malachite as they left the boy to be trained.
        "Alexandrite is... a bit high strung when it comes to her energy and attitude. You'd think she had a whole ball of energy in her ready to explode whenever she wanted it. Unfortunately she can't call it when she's fighting yet."
        "Really? Interesting. What did she mean by that remark she made before walking out?"
        "She's not her true age, she's aged three or four years every few months. She hates it because it hurts her."
        "She should know there are worse things than pain in the world."
        "She does, but she still rebels against it. You wouldn't believe that kid's screaming..."
        "Tell me more about her, please..."
        Suddenly the boy came out of the training room and found himself kissing the ground. "What the--?" He looked up and saw a little girl about a year older than him. She didn't look happy to see him.
        "What are you doing, sneaking around my halls?" she growled at him.
        "Alex! That is no way to talk to a guest." Malachite commanded her, "Be more polite. He's a young prince."
        "Well he wasn't very polite to run into me like that!" Alex pouted and looked down at the boy as he stood to face her.
        "Jacinth, what do we do when we meet a princess?" the stranger asked the boy.
        "Sorry uncle, I forgot." the boy sighed and took Alex's hand. "Sorry to disrupt you, princess." he kissed her hand on the little ring that symbolized her royal status.
        Alex frowned and tried to resist rubbing her hand on her dress and failed. She hated it when boys kissed her hand. It was gross. She made a face and stuck her tongue out at the boy.
        "Alex, go to your room. You've been a terrible girl today. Your manners have never been worse." Malachite ordered and Alex slunk off growling under her breath. ************************************************         What were they talking about? Alex couldn't hear anything from her hiding spot. She silently cursed, knowing that they were talking about her. She'd seen people yell at her enough to know the words of her name on lips, even if she couldn't hear the voices saying them. What did that guy want to know about her? Why was he so interested? She was only a bratty ten year old kid... She scowled, remembering that in another month or so she'd be made about thirteen or possibly older. Still too young for the man to show even a warrior's interest in her. Her own father was disappointed in her fighting ability. She passed out every time he tried to force her to do an extreme energy blast. She was no better than when she was seven.
        Alex sighed silently and glared at the two talking men. She hated her fate being decided for her, and she had the uncanny idea that it was being plotted out right now. She huffed and finally gave up, storming away, so angry that she was in her room before she knew she'd taken a step. She didn't care how she got there, she just jumped onto her bed and sat there, steaming mad.
        What nerve did that guy have coming with that kid who beat on her punching bag, and then talking with her father about her when she wasn't there... Alex got so mad she ripped her dark violet blanket in half. Then she picked up her pillow and threw it at the door just as it opened and Zoisite poked his head in.
        "Yeow! I guess I should be thankful it wasn't a piece of your desk or the chair." Zoisite said and came in.
        "Sorry, Zoi-chan. I'm just peeved about daddy. He's talking about me with that strange man."
        "He is huh?" Zoi said half-angrily. "I'll talk to him later." Suddenly Zoi noticed the blanket. "Geez you really are upset, aren't you? I'll get you a new blanket tonight."
        "Thanks." Alex sighed. "I may need a larger one soon though."
        "Ah... think they're plotting another growth?"
        "Yeah... but I dunno why..."
        "I think I have an idea... and your daddy's gonna get an earful for it." Zoisite said and hugged his almost little sister. "Try not to lose sleep over it... you need rest." He kissed her forehead and left her in her room to calm down.

So what do you think so far about the story? The next chapter will be up as soon as I get the time to type it out and publish it. In the meantime, check out my friend's submitted fan-fic: "Jacinth's Story" ^_^ Thanks for reading and I hope you read the next chapter!