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.
Darian sat down on his bed. "Here," he said, patting the area to his right, "sit down." He watched as Jed slowly sank down beside him.
"Darian," his friend said softly, "what happened to me back there?"
Darian frowned. "What?"
"I was crying, Darian," Jed said. "I was crying, but I wasn't sad or in pain."
Darian shook his head. "People don't cry just because they're sad or hurt," he said. "Sometimes we cry because we're upset about something. Were you? Upset, I mean?"
Jed shook his head. "I don't think so. I didn't feel like crying at all until you told me that I was special and that you cared about me." Jed sighed, clenching his fists. "I don't understand. When I heard you say that, I felt happier than I've felt since you released me from Beryl's crystal. But if I was happy, why was I crying?"
Darian smiled. "That's the best kind of crying, Jed," he said. "People cry when they're happy, too. It's just that we're so happy that we can't laugh or smile enough to express it. It swells up inside of us and the only way we can stand it is to cry a little."
Jed stared at him. "Really?"
Darian nodded. "Really." He paused. "Do you remember what we were talking about before we ran into Sailor Mars? About repaying favors?"
Jed frowned. "Yes."
Darian nodded. "Well, you've just repayed me several times over for the little I've done for you."
Jed blinked. "I don't understand."
"You cried because you were happy," Darian explained. "And that you were happy means that everything I've done for you so far was worth it all. Not that I wouldn't have done it anyway, but I'm glad I've been doing all the right things to help you adjust to life without the Negaverse." He sighed. "I meant it when I told you before that I enjoy having you here, sharing my apartment with me. I don't know how much Mina and Lita have told you about my relationship with Serena, but it has its disadvantages."
"They haven't said much," Jed said quietly.
"Every moment I spend with Serena is precious to me," Darian said softly, "because I love her with all my heart. But until recently, every moment I spent with her hurt me as well, because when I left her each afternoon or each evening it was to come back here." He gestured to his room. "I came home to quiet and emptiness. My days always ended by staring at the ceiling as I fell asleep. I had no one to talk to, no one to listen to, no one to argue with. You've changed all that."
Jed blinked. "Me?"
Darian nodded. "Now you're here, and this place isn't so lonely anymore. You're here, and it makes a huge difference. I enjoy having you here, to talk to and to spend time with. Being apart from Serena still hurts, but now I have a friend I can talk to." He smiled. "A cousin to talk to."
Jed nodded, then grinned shyly.
Darian watched the smile change Jed's features from simply handsome to radiant with cheer and happiness. But he still saw the effect Jed's tears had etched in his expression. He sighed. "Jed, why don't you rest for a little bit? It's been a long exciting day and you looked strained."
Jed sighed. "I do feel a little tired."
Darian stood up. "Then lie back and try to rest. I'll call you when dinner's ready, okay?"
Jed nodded. "You're the best, Darian. Thanks."
"Hey, what are cousins for?"
Darian waited until Jed shut his eyes before he left the room. Once outside, however, the calm, cheerful expression he'd maintained fell away as he let his anger and hurt take over. He stormed into the living room where he'd left Mina, Amy, and Artemis. As he'd expected, Lita, Serena, and Luna had arrived with a glowering Rei.
"How is he?" Mina asked.
"Jed's fine," Darian said curtly. "He's resting now." He continued across the living room until he stood directly in front of Rei.
"You listen and you listen carefully, Rei Hino," he said coldly. He pointed back the way he'd come. "There's a young man back there who has suffered a punishment far worse than anything you could possibly inflict. Death would be a mercy after what Queen Beryl put him through, but now he has a new chance at life and at goodness."
"Darian--" Mina began, but he waved her silent.
"Beryl sentenced him to sleep forever," he continued. "Do you know what that is? You sleep forever, suffering from endless nightmares that you can't escape by waking up. They go on and on and on, and it drive a person insane."
Rei tossed her head and prepared to speak, but Darian forged on.
"Well, he's free and he's fine," he said. "He's struggled through the darkness. Now it's his turn to walk in the light. And I'm going to help him. He's my friend, and right now he's also my cousin, and I'll become Beryl's slave again before I let you singe so much as a hair on his head. He's my friend, and if you can't handle that, I suggest you leave this apartment and never return. Because I have no desire to be friends with someone who can't find it in her heart to forgive the mistakes a person made in a previous life."
He spun away before she could say anything, stalking out onto the balcony. He slammed the sliding door shut against its frame. He rested his arms on the railing of the balcony and gazed down at the city streets below.
He heard the door open and close again, but he didn't turn around to see who it was. "Go away," he ordered.
"Darian," Mina said softly, "you're not being fair to Rei."
Darian turned and glared incredulously at her. "Fair? Mina, she didn't even give him a chance! The moment she saw him she transformed and tried to fry him!"
"All right," Artemis said from his spot at Mina's feet, "maybe Rei did overreact. But can you really blame her? After all, he did his share of evil against the Sailor Scouts, and he gave the Cherry Hill temple some pretty bad publicity."
Darian shook his head. "We all know perfectly well that Rei can sense evil whenever it's close by. It's how she detected Jedite in the first place. But do you know what I saw in her face today? Just before she transformed and attacked?" He shook his head. "I saw surprise. It wasn't simply surprise at seeing Jed. She was surprised that he'd been able to get so close without her sensing it."
Mina shook her head. "You're imagining things, Darian," she said. "It was just surprise."
"Well, even if it was, she immediately attacked," Darian said. "She didn't even hesitate. It didn't matter that you, Lita, Amy, Artemis, Luna, and I were with him. She saw Jed and she attacked!"
"That was wrong," Mina said, "and we both know it. And I think Rei knows it, too. It's just that she has a very quick temper and usually acts on her impulses instead of thinking things through. She's like Serena that way. But Lita and Luna reasoned with her on their way here." She sighed. "She isn't exactly ready to shake hands with Jed, but she's willing to admit she was wrong in attacking like that."
"So?" Darian turned and leaned on the rail again.
"Darian," Artemis said, jumping up onto his shoulder, "earlier today you asked Rei who was more evil, Jed who had once served the Negaverse but was trying to change or Rei who wouldn't let him change. Well, maybe you should think about who's worse, the one who did something wrong and regrets it a little or the one who won't accept even a marginal apology."
Darian wanted to knock the cat off his shoulder and throw him over the balcony, but Artemis' logic tore mercilessly into his conscience. He sighed. "I guess you're right," he said softly. "I'm not happy about it, but I guess Rei deserves another chance."
"That's the spirit," Mina said from behind him.
Darian heard the door open and close again. At first he thought Mina had gone back inside, but when Artemis suddenly stiffened he knew someone else had joined them.
"Darian?"
Darian closed his eyes and bit his lip. He wasn't ready for this yet. "Yes, Rei?"
"Darian, I'm sorry," the other girl said. "It was wrong of me to simply attack Jedite this afternoon. I should have waited until you'd had a chance to explain what was going on before I incinerated him. Instead I let my emotions get the better of me."
Darian shook his head. "All right."
"I really am--"
"All right, Rei," Darian said more forcefully. He turned around. "You've made your apology and I've accepted it. But you're apologizing to the wrong person. Jed is the one who deserves you're apology, and he's the one whose forgiveness you're seeking, not mine. And his name is Jed, not Jedite."
"Darian," Artemis hissed, digging his claws into his shoulder.
"I don't trust him," Rei said, crossing her arms and glaring up at him. "I won't lie to you on that. Maybe he's proven himself to all of you, but he hasn't to me, and it will take a lot to make me trust him."
"Fine," Darian said, waving his hand in disgust. "Distrust him all you want. Distrust everything your senses tell you, especially you're psychic abilities. Never mind that neither Artemis nor Luna senses any residual Negaverse energy in him. Never mind that you don't sense any evil in him. I don't care anymore how you feel about him."
"Darian!" Artemis hissed.
Rei started to storm away, but she stopped by the door. Darian watched as she took a deep breath and turned back.
"Darian," she said slowly. "I'd like to make it up to you. To both of you. Will you let me do that?"
Darian wasn't sure he wanted to hear her and kept his mouth shut.
"What do you have in mind, Rei?" Artemis asked. Darian reached up and chased the cat off of his shoulder.
"Well, why don't we all go to the amusement park on Saturday?" Rei asked. "I'll treat Jedite--Jed--to anything he wants. That way you'll have a chance to prove to me that he really has changed. And if he isn't the person he used to be, then I'll apologize to him and try to start trusting him." She stuck out her hand. "Is it a deal?"
"Rei, you don't want to do that," Mina hissed.
"What?"
Darian waved Mina aside. He felt a vicious grin rising to his face and forced it down. "It's a deal," he said calmly. "We'll go to the park on Saturday and you'll pay for everything Jed wants."
"Right."
Darian reached out and grasped her hand. They shook once. The moment Rei broke contact Darian let a bit of his vicious smile emerge.
Mina shook her head. "You'll be sorry, Rei," she said.
Darian grinned.
* * *
"I don't believe it!" Rei groaned. "Mina, next time I offer to treat somebody to a day at the park, just give me a swift quick to my rear."
"It's your own fault, Rei," Mina said. "I tried to warn you."
Rei shook her head. "It isn't my fault."
Lita cocked her head, arching her eyebrow. "Oh, really? If you hadn't tried to kill Jed in the first place, you wouldn't have had to apologize to Darian and Jed in the second place, and you wouldn't have offered to treat Jed to everything here in the third place and be spending your allowance for the next two months here and now! I'd say it is your fault, Rei."
Rei glowered at her friend. "Who's side are you on anyway?" she muttered.
It was unbelievable. Somehow Jedite had managed to convince everyone--even Artemis and Luna--that he had completely changed. True, the malicious glint and edge to his voice that had characterized all their previous encounters was gone and there was a strange innocence in his looks, but how was it really possible for someone who had been so totally evil to suddenly become completely good?
But what was even more unbelievable was the amount of money he'd cost her already.
"I never expected to be paying so heavily for my generosity," Rei complained. "He's already cost me all the money I'd been saving for that killer outfit we saw at the department store. If this keeps up I won't be able to buy anything for myself for the rest of the year!"
Mina laughed. "I have news for you, Rei," she said. "Jed's actually being conservative today."
Rei frowned. "Conservative?"
"He bought a lot more the day we ran into him outside Shibuya station," Mina explained. "Of course, we helped goad him along. He didn't want to spend too much of Darian's money, but it all added up."
"Darian did a lot of the choosing, though," Lita pointed out. "Jed chose about half of what Darian bought and Darian chose the rest because he thought Jed might appreciate it. I'm pretty sure it put a major dent in Darian's wallet."
Rei shook her head. "Have you seen the prices of the things he's been buying? Or that I've been paying? If I didn't know better, I'd say that Darian had put him up to it."
"Rei!" Mina said, shocked. "You know Darian would never do a thing like that, no matter how angry he was. Even if you did deserve it," she added under her breath.
Rei heard the comment and started to respond, but she realized that she would indeed deserve it if Darian told Jedite to buy anything and everything he wanted. She'd been prejudiced and judgmental when she attacked him, and he hadn't deserved that. She should have given him a chance the way everyone else had. Instead she'd tried to kill him the moment she saw him.
From the way things were going, Jedite seemed to have truly changed. She sensed nothing evil in him, nothing remotely resembling the Negaverse. If she threw one of her anti-evil charms at him, it would probably just fall off. But there was something about Jedite that she couldn't place. As much as everyone wanted her to trust him, she couldn't. She had a terrible feeling that he would be the cause of a terrible calamity.
Rei sighed. "I'll try to give him a chance," she promised. "I'll try to keep an open, objective mind about this."
"That's the spirit," Lita said, punching her in the arm. "Come on, the others are waiting for us."
Rei looked up.
Their six companions had, indeed, stopped up ahead in a fairly open plaza at the park amid a grove of topiary beasts. Artemis and Luna seemed to be fighting over a half-melted popsicle while Serena hung on Darian's arm and while Jedite and Amy discussed something that invovled a lot of hand gestures.
It was a completely innocent scene, but as her eyes fell on Jedite, Rei felt the same sense of foreboding. What disaster was waiting to descend upon them? What evil would use Jedite as a doorway into their world?
The sound of crying intruded on her thoughts. Everyone else had heard the crying also and were scanning the surrounding area. She looked around and immediately saw its source.
A young boy of maybe five or six years of age stood in the middle of the plaza, bawling. From the looks of things it seemed as though he'd become separated from his parents. Rei started forward, vaguely aware that everyone else had begun moving as well. It disturbed her when Jedite reached the child first, kneeling down beside him.
"What's wrong?" she heard him ask.
"I can't find my Mommy," the boy sobbed, tears streaming down his face.
By this time everyone else had joined them. "Can you tell us what she looks like?" Mina asked.
The boy nodded. "She's really beautiful, and she's with my cousins and sisters."
Mina sighed. "Ask a stupid question," she murmurred.
"Mina!" Darian hissed. He turned to the child. "Do you remember what she was wearing today?"
The boy nodded again. "She had this really big hat," he said, holding his hands apart as wide as he could. "It had this shiny ribbon around it, like the one she ties in Susie's hair all the time."
"What color was it?" Amy asked.
"It was pink," the boy answered.
Rei stood up and looked around. And sighed. It was just their luck to be here on a Saturday when nearly every woman had at least a child or two in tow wearing hats with really wide brims to keep the sun out of their eyes.
"Well, let's start looking," she said.
"Jed, you stay here with the kid," Lita said. "That way in case his mother comes looking for him he won't be off in some other area of the park missing her."
Jedite shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind."
Rei felt the sudden stab of foreboding again. "Maybe he should come with us," she said, catching hold of the boy's arm and tugging him to her. "That way he can tell us if he sees his mother anywhere or not." She blinked when her hands were abruptly emptied.
"He can stay here, Rei," Serena said. "He'll be just fine here with Jed."
Rei scowled at her and pulled the boy back to her. "He'll be better off with us," she said, glaring.
Serena tugged the boy away again. "He stays here with Jed!"
Rei grabbed hold of the boy's free arm. "He comes with us!"
"He stays!"
"He comes!"
"He stays!"
"Get your hands off that child!" a voice snapped. Two hands dropped between them and pulled the boy away from them. Rei looked up to see Darian firmly depositing a now crying child in a startled Jedite's arms.
Darian turned back to glare at them. "He'll stay right here while the two of you go out and look for his mother," he said flatly. "The cats and I will stay with them to keep them company." His gaze settled on Rei. "Is that all right with you?"
Rei glowered back. "Fine. He can stay right here!" She turned and stormed away from them. She felt Darian's eyes on her, but she ignored him. The moment she sensed his attention directed elsewhere, however, she doubled back and hid behind a topiary giraffe. From this new vantage point she could hear everything that they said.
"Hey, hey, don't cry," Darian was saying softly. "Those two crazy girls are gone now. They won't hurt you anymore."
Rei winced at his dry description, but realized that she had been acting a little silly.
"They may not look like it," Darian continued, "but they're really helpful when they try to be. I'm sure they'll find your mom in no time."
"But in the meantime," Jedite said, "we'll just stay right here until they come back with your mom, okay?"
The boy nodded, wiping the tears from his face.
Jedite smiled. "That's good. By the way, this is Darian and my name is Jed. What's your name?"
"Davey."
"Well, Davey, while we wait for them to come back, why don't you tell me all about everything you've done today at the park? I'd really like to know how you like it here. Did you go on the merry-go-round?"
"Yeah! It was really neat!"
"I like watching those horses going up and down," Jedite said. "Did you feel like you were really riding a horse."
The boy shook his head. "No, real horses are bigger and they go faster."
"You like fast rides?" Jedite asked. At the boy's nod he continued. "Did you go on the roller coaster?"
The boy shook his head quickly. "No way! That's too fast!"
Jedite laughed, as did Darian and the boy.
Rei, crouched miserably behind the bush, struggled to her feet. Despite her misgivings about leaving the boy in Jedite's hands, it was more important that they find his mother.
But she wasn't about to go very far.
* * *
Darian, coming back from buying ice cream cones, paused a few feet away from where Jed was listening avidly to everything the boy, Davey, was telling him.
It was small wonder that the boy had remained cheerful almost the entire time they'd been watching him. Jed paid such close attention to everything Davey said and displayed such intense interest that Davey had relaxed and started speaking eagerly. And Jed had listened to everything the boy said, offering supporting comments and always displaying an almost child-like awe at everything the boy said.
Darian sighed as he approached. He knew why Jed could listen so long and so attentively to Davey. It was because almost everything he heard and saw was a new experience for him. It was a little depressing to realize that Jed was practically a blank slate, but at least that slate was quickly filling itself.
"Here you go," he said loudly, handing a cone to Davey. "Chocolate ice cream, Davey, just like you wanted."
The boy smiled at him. "Thank you," he said cheerfully before licking at a drop of melting ice cream that threatened to spill onto his fingers.
"And one for you," Darian said, handing Jed the other cone. "I didn't know what you wanted so I got you vanilla."
Jed smiled up at him. "Thanks, Darian. I'm sure it will be terrific."
Davey frowned. "Don't you like ice cream?"
Darian suppressed a grin at Jed's shocked expression. "Oh, my cousin has this thing about snacks," he said. "He doesn't eat them unless someone else buys it for him."
Jed frowned. "Hey, I resent that." Then he grinned. "Even if it is true."
Darian laughed. Davey seemed confused, and returned his attention to the cone.
"Davey!"
Darian looked up. A woman with a wide-brimmed hat was hurrying towards them, dragging a group of five or six children behind her.
"Mommy!" Davey jumped up and ran to her, somehow managing to hold onto his cone as he hugged her knees.
Darian felt a pang as he watched, remembering all too well how his own childhood had been.
"Oh, thank you!" the woman gushed, coming up to them. "How can I ever repay you?"
Jed stood up. "It was my pleasure," he said. "Davey was a little upset when he couldn't find you, but he's fine now, right?"
Darian grinned as the woman pulled Jed's head down to kiss his cheek. "Oh, thank you for watching him. I was so worried. I hope he wasn't a bother."
"Not at all," Darian said. "Davey and Jed were getting along just fine. Right, Davey?"
"Right!"
The woman nodded, then turned. "It's time to go now," she said. "Say good-bye, Davey."
Davey ran over to Jed and pulled him down. "Bye, Big Brother," he said, hugging Jed. Then he turned and went back to his mother.
"Thank you," she said, bowing once before leading her troop of kids away.
Jed straightened, blushing brightly.
"Jed," someone said.
Darian glanced over towards a topiary giraffe. "I was wondering when you were going to come out, Rei."
She blinked. "You knew?" Then she shook her head. "Never mind." She turned to Jed. "Listen, Jed, I'd like to apologize. For everything. I should have given you a chance to prove you had changed instead of just trying to kill you." She held out her hand. "I'd like to be your friend, if you'll let me."
Jed hesitated for a second, then took her hand in his. "Sure," he said simply.
Darian smiled. It looked like things were going to be all right.
For now, anyway.
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