Disclaimer: I know I know... these get worse every week but *shrugs*... I'm fried from finishing this so too bad. Standard disclaimers apply. Yeah, let's all hit the unimaginative author. Whopee! Ahem.. yes... LOL Well this is kinda a short chapter but I did lengthen it, promise. It was a page shorter but I got tired of it and got off my lazy bum and finished this chapter off. Yeah me! Author notes at the end, make sure to email!

inspiredthoughts@hotmail.com

Chapter Seven

Gasping General Nephrite sank onto his bed, his head cradled in his hands. He shook, fighting the urge that welled inside of him as he turned away from the balcony that waited, just on the other side of the door. For the balcony was under the full view of the stars, the glorious stars, the diamonds of the sky, the jewels in space's crown. His teachers, his friends, his mentors, the ones who had shown him the intricacies of his magic. The ones he hadn't looked to for wisdom since Endy had died. Since Rose had died...

He had faced Princess Lita, faced what he had helped to destroy, squarely, but he couldn't face the shame that came with the fact that he was afraid of the stars. The stars were perfect, guiding flames who lit the way for those who were willing. And as such they were impartial, totally and completely. He couldn't face them because he knew that what Sol was doing was wrong and in this fight he stood on the wrong side. When he looked to the stars they'd tell him that, those who had raised him with their lore, who had made him the man he was, would tell him that he had failed.

Knowing that he was a failure, that all he stood for was wrong, was one thing, but to be told by those that he respected most? Nephrite had let little touch him. He trusted few, 'Rose...' but the stars, since they were perfect it was safe to trust them, they would never fail him, never not live up to his expectations. It was bitter to know that he didn't live up to theirs.

"Are you done wallowing in self pity yet?" Shocked, he stood and whirled, eyes wide. He knew that voice, her voice. Sometimes her screams haunted his nightmares; sometimes her laughter chased him into daydreams. Rose smiled gently at him as she leaned against the balcony door's frame nonchalantly. Sweet sapphire eyes twinkled merrily as one side of her mouth curled in a familiar welcome.

"Rose..." he whispered and staggered to her. One trembling hand raised to touch her cheek but she stepped away, eyes pleading with him.

"Don't Nephrite..." Anguished he clenched his hands.

"Why not?"

"Because lover, you already blame yourself enough for my death when there is no blame to be had. Touching me will only make it worse." Hungrily he stared at her, at the gentle curve from her cheek to her neck, at the small crease that appeared between her dark brows.

"I miss you," he managed to whisper. Rose bit her lip and nodded slightly.

"I know."

"Why... why are you here now? Why not when... When I thought I'd go mad from the grief? When I thought I had lost my world?" She sighed, a sound that he had sorely missed, and looked briefly away and up, through the glass, to the stars above.

"Because... because you didn't need me. You wanted me but you didn't need me. You survived, like you always do." She turned back and flashed a brief, radiant smile. His heart stilled.

"And now?" he dared to ask. "What need is so great that I cannot save myself?" He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He almost succeeded. Rose's sharp features softened at the tone but underneath he sensed the steel, steel he had always known of.

"Nephrite what I'm about to ask you to do will stretch all yourlimits. This will not be easy. I was sent because you will no longer listen to them." She glanced significantly up at the stars and he winced.

"The universe is at the brink of chaos and it is your destiny, your fate, to bring it back from darkness. One thing can save it. A union, between you and Princess Jupiter, Lita." His heart clenched with painful jealously at the warmth she granted that name. Rose had learned to love him but Lita had always been the first human to treat his love with kindness, with friendship. As the words sunk in though Nephrite gaped.

"A union between me and Princess Lita?!" Rose nodded sagely.

"Yes lover."

"But," he spluttered... "I don't understand." Rose sighed again as the crease between her eyebrows deepened.

"There is a balance to all things Nephrite. Our match was not to be. It was supposed to be you and Lita from the start. Of course it was *really* supposed to be Endymion and Princess Serena but those two were fated to be separated this time no matter what. That was the plan and that was the universe's intention." He laughed, a short bark of disbelief.

"Are you saying that, had Princess Lita and I married, all the wars, all the battles, all the deaths, would have been avoided?!" Rose shook her head.

"No lover. It would have ensured that Sol never reigned over the entire universe. Lita is a warrior, believe it or not. As are the other princesses. They have awesome powers, they had them. Serenity and Serena's death destroyed them, for now. Lita would have never allowed for the kind of unchecked ambition Sol has. But she is also kind. I learned that for myself. She would have found some way to neutralize Sol without destroying Earth.

Our love was not wrong Nephrite; I'm not saying that so stop looking at me with outright horror in your eyes. Our marriage, our time together was a blessing. It wasn't wrong, it just wasn't as right as you and Lita would be. I am not the love of your life, no matter how much you want to believe that I am. The stars have it written in the sky Nephrite and you know it.

You've convinced yourself that the stars are ashamed of you because you hold yourself to the vows you have sworn and that isn't true. The stars are ashamed of you because you refuse to see the truth that is in front of your face. Its not too late Nephrite. The universe has suffered but it's not yet destroyed." He snorted.

"And if I married Princess Lita now? You think that would solve everything?" Rose scowled.

"Don't be ridiculous. It would help things, it would make things better, it would give us a chance! The fight will be hard and you will lose much more that you hold dear but there will be hope Nephrite if you agree to the match! Hope!"

"And you think Sol would accept her into the palace as the complacent little General's wife?" Rose frowned and closed her eyes briefly in pain.

"No." The one word silenced him until he realized what she meant.

"So the stars aren't ashamed of me for sticking to vows I have made but now I must forsake them?" Rose pursed her lips in annoyance.

"Yes. Had you and Lita married earlier perhaps not. Perhaps your precious honor and dignity might have remained intact while your *loving* wife could have been a traitor to the people she married into by saving the universe. Suck it up lover. Lita demanded that you look her in the eye and face what you have done. Now look me in the eye and tell me that your integrity, your pride, is worth one innocent's blood." Nephrite, defeated, slumped down onto his bed.

"You're right love." Rose walked nearer and looked down at him fondly.

"I know but it doesn't mean the decision isn't hard to make. I also know the enormity of what I ask of you. But I ask, for me, if you ever truly managed to love me try to love her too. In my world I cared for two, you and Lita. You *must* make this work. You must stand together, not just in name but in truth, and together do what you can. You're both strong, both in power and spirit. Please... I've never asked anything of you Nephrite. *Never*. You came to love me by yourself. Now I ask this." He looked up, unnoticed tears streaming down his face.

"You ask me to turn away from friends and liege and to stand with a woman defeated by me and mine. You ask me to... to open my heart to more pain. What makes you even think that Princess Lita would try to love me?" Rose knelt and looked earnestly up into his cobalt eyes.

"Because she was *born* to love you. She is your one true love. She doesn't want to be and she'll fight it every step of the way but her heart beats with yours and no one else's. Go slow lover. Offer aide and wait. She'll fall for you because she has to, because her blood sings your name in her sleep, because you are her knight in ever so slightly tarnished armor."

He looked past his dead wife and wasn't entirely surprised to see Endy standing there, a blonde angel held protectively in her arms. Another woman who bore a striking resemblance to the girl stood next to them, silver hair touching the floor. She was flanked by three women that he thought he recognized, the symbols of Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn blazing on their foreheads. On Endymion's other side was a young man with serious eyes who wore a rather tattered guard uniform from Jupiter. And behind them, murky forms stretching into the night sky stood everyone who had died in Earth's path toward dominance. They all watched him, not accusing, simply watching, face blank, eyes expectant. Nephrite, swallowing, looked back to Rose. Their needless deaths weighed terribly on him, on broad shoulder suddenly not strong enough for the task set for him.

"I'll... I'll try love." Eyes shining Rose nodded. She rose and kissed him, lifeless lips coolly brushing his brow, before fading away with most of the other ghosts of war. He wiped tears away and looked up again to find Endymion, and the girl he assumed to be Serena, still there. Endymion smiled once, saluted, bowed, and was gone. Nephrite smiled in return as he felt his pain weary soul lifting in response. Then hesitantly he met Serena's guileless sapphire gaze. She measured him carefully, face tight in concentration, before she relaxed. She curtsied thoughtfully.

"Endy told me that you were a good man. I'm glad to see that it's true. Be good to Lita. She was one of my truest friends and fiercest protectors. You're not the only one who has lost." Her eyes narrowed as she studied him intently again.

"I shall help you, if I can," she murmured, almost reluctantly. "Lita is not an easy woman to get along with. No matter how many times Endy tells me that you're a trained diplomat and can convince everyone of anything I doubt even you can persuade the princess that you're willing to stand with them, not Sol. I shall try but I make no guarantees." She blinked and frowned, gaze curious, before vanishing as well.

Nephrite shivered, awed, humbled, and at last, perhaps at peace. He knew his destiny and his lover's last wish. He was to abandon Earth and join the shattered Moon Kingdom. He was to be a traitor. He was to call a jaded eyed tigress his wife. By the decree of those now gone, by the decree of the stars. He trembled as he wentto the balcony door, his hand on the knob as he considered for the first time in five years about conversing with the sky. His magic filled him, urging him onward as his dark gaze moved slowly upward, drawn by a desire deep within his breast. Nephrite swallowed and started to turn the handle when, faintly in the distance, he heard the sound of combat and a voice he had once sworn to hate because of duty. Rising to meet the voice was Kunzite's triumphant battle cry.

"Damn," he swore as he turned away and pelted for the room where Princess Mina and Beryl lay, locked in a fatal struggle, andwhere even now Kunzite and the infuriating princess he was fated to love fought.

Two women and a man materialized in the empty room. Rose sighed softly. "I miss him still Sere..." Princess Serena turned away from the woman who had become her friend in death, unable to bear the pain now unmasked in her lovely eyes.

"I know Rose." Rose bowed her head to hide the glimmering tears that ran down her cheeks.

"I... I wasn't his true love but he was mine. That should count for something, shouldn't it?!" Serena shook her head, not knowing what to say. Ken, the ever strong and silent Ken stepped forward and put comforting arms around the minor noblewoman.

"Yes," he murmured as his friend turned to weep into his knowing embrace. "Yes, it should." Serena reached out to touch them but thought better of it. She felt Endy's questioning presence and after a moment's hesitation allowed her essence to be drawn away and back to the stars, leaving the two to mourn the loves of their lives.

On a cold marble table deep within the Earth palace Ami writhed in pain filled dreams as she had ever since that fateful day when she and Rei had been captured. Her fatal wounds burned, even in her unconsciousness, and her lashes fluttered but did not open sapphire eyes. She was otherwise still to the world, even as she suffered internal hell and yet...

Cold soothing magic filled her slowly, its familiar touch quieting her agony and subduing the pain. One bruised hand, faltering, trembling, reached slowly up to her breast to clutch the symbol of Mercury.

Rei lay on the table next to her, oblivious to her friend's presence, locked in her own pain. Threads of anguish laced her soul, tearing through the strength that held her up for so long, as images of her destroyed planet and conquered people fueled the nightmares that haunted her in unconsciousness. Her chapped lips parted slightly as she tried to scream but no sound emerged.

Then power, magic unknown for five years, gently touched her, filled her, and began to complete her. Liquid fire burned away the pain and replaced it with something she had missed terribly, roaring flames. Her slender hand, searching, finally found what it was seeking, the cold metal symbol of Mars. Cracked lips curled slightly in the smallest of smiles as fingers clutched the pendant until it warmed in her hand.

Author's Notes: Its me again... Well if you're wondering where this story is going, so am I. For instance, when I started I didn't even dream of writing Rose in there. Expect a 'fight' scene next week, by fight I mean lame attempt that is changed to an 'after fight' scene. And by next week I mean whenever I get inspired. Or I might decided to prolong it still further... *angry mob lights torches and grabs pitch fork* Eek! Okay..I'll let ya'll know what's going on with Lita and Kunzite, kay? If all this makes no sense that's okay. Just keep your fingers crossed that the story stays readable. =) Hummm...I'm in a chatter mood tonight so I'm gonna talk some more, lucky you! Thanks to Yoshi and Lia and Aimee and Venusian for putting up with my incessant chatter, me asking (begging) for help, support, pictures, and visiting my site and making the counter go up a lot. I love my counter. Yeah I'm weird. Humm...oh that reminds me... Visit my web site!

http://www.geocities.com/keitree

And email! No one emails me anymore. Or hotmail is participating in a conspiracy to keep me from getting my mail. I haven't figured out which yet. I hope the second because a) not only is it more intersting to think about b) it means people are liking the story and I'm just not receiving the email which is way preferable to the thought that no one cares enough to drop me a line. To sum it up...

Hello? Is anyone there?

Mmkay...I think I'm done rambling. If someone is *still* here email and yell for writing such stupid Author's Notes. Kay... Bye bye.