Part VII

"There are things about to happen that you are not ready for without the appropriate memories," the sword speaks silently.

"What are you talking about? What things? What memories? Even better question...why am I conversing with a weapon?" Diana replies.

There's kind laughter in her mind.

"You amuse me, Diana. As for your questions, I speak of the worst evil. An evil as great as the Dark Master. Indeed related, but far older.

I speak also of love so true it overcomes death, and passes life to life.

The thing I speak of is this evil trying to reassert itself and take over you and your friends. Trying to warp you and make you its slaves. It will be impossible resisting her power without these memories, nearly so WITH them. But it WILL at least be possible."

"And the memories?"

"The memories...this will no doubt be painful. To spare you a great deal of agony, however, these memories will be accessible when needed."

With that, the sword reaches deep into her mind and her soul, finding the switch and flipping it.

Diana squeezes her eyes shut, her fingers loosing their grip on the enchanted sword. As the it clatters to the rooftop, she grabs her head and doubles over, screaming in pain. Memories flood into her mind, somewhat like the crushing force of winds born from a tornado.

"Diana?!" Jae shouts, at her side in the instant she goes down.

He catches her when her body suddenly slackens.

Gently, he sets her down, looking in alarm at her twitching hands and fluttering eyelids.

HLM and Neph join them. Neph checks her vital signs as HLM takes off her shades, revealing her brightly glowing eyes.

Neph simply raises a brow, Jae doesn't notice, he's so intent on Diana.

HLM blinks. "Ok...she should be waking up soon."

Just after she says that, Diana moans softly, starting to come around.

"Ugh..."

"Diana...are you ok??"

"Uh...I think so...what happened?" she asks, bewildered.

"You had some kind of fit," Jae tells her, pulling her close.

Diana frowns. "Guess I'm more tired than I thought."

Jae gently picks her up, effortlessly, and kisses her forehead. "Then let's get you to bed."

She grins at her appointed opponent as he skillfully attacks her. The moment he grabs her, she leads him in a dance that leaves him rolling to his feet.

"Good one, Diana." Zoi grins as he flips his ponytail over his shoulder.

Diana grins. "You're pretty good yourself." She throws a kick at Zoi's head.

He catches her leg and sends her tumbling to the ground by twisting her knee just right.

As she leaps back up to her feet, all spars are called and the conference is called to a close.

Later that day, Diana finds Zoi in the arms of a tall platinum blond man.

Zoi spots her and motions for her to join them.

"Zoi, hi," Diana greets him with a sweet smile.

Zoi smiles. "Diana, meet my lover, Kunzite. Kunzy, this is the woman I was telling you about, Diana."

Diana extends a hand, "Nice to meet you."

Kunz accepts her hand and shakes it. "The feeling's mutual. Zoisite tells me you're a  citizen of both the Earth and Moon Kingdoms."

Diana smiles slightly and nods. "Mom was of the Earth and Dad was of the Moon. I was born in a shuttle between the two."

" 'Was'? What are your parents now?" Kunz asks.

"Dead." Diana's soulful eyes fill with sadness. "Mom died while giving birth to me, Dad died before my very eyes in an accident five years later."

"Ah...Diana, I'm sorry."

Diana shrugs.

"I guess you wouldn't want to meet my family then," Zoi speaks up softly.

Diana grins. "Hey, I wouldn't mind at all, it would be an honor, actually."

"Good, because here they come," Zoi says with a grin.

Diana looks over to see a man of six feet, and a woman, slightly shorter, approaching.

Zoi obviously got his coloring from his father, while his mother has long, wavy, yellow-blond hair and blue eyes. Zoi got his slight build from his mother, though. While still slender, Zoi's father was without a doubt of a more masculine figure than he was.

Zoi hugs both of them before introducing them.

They chat for a little bit before Jae and his girlfriend Rei, join them. Zoi intros his little brother and his raven-haired girlfriend.

Diana grins, immediately liking this fun loving blond haired, blue eyed guy.

They start joking around right away.

Diana notices the scornful looks Mars keeps sending at her and tries bringing her into the fun.

"Horribly sorry, but I don't associate with half breeds," Mars glares at Diana before storming off.

Diana simply watches, shocked and hurt.

"Oh...Diana...I'm sorry about that," Jae says, "I don't know what brought that on. My beloved has a bit of a temper sometimes. I'll go calm her down, and sometime later, you and I can talk again." He pats her shoulder and takes off running after the Martian Princess.

"Um...if you'll excuse me, I think I should be going," Diana says softly.

"You don't have to," Zoi's mother says, resting a comforting hand on Diana's shoulder.

"Actually, I have some things I have to attend to...it was nice meeting you all," she says before hastily leaving the others staring after her.

The scenery blurs.

Diana turns back and goes back through the halls to her best friend's room.

They got talking about his and Mars' break up and she totally forgot the message she was to bring him from Endymion.

She honestly doesn't know why Jae's so infatuated with Mars. Sure she's pretty and Diana's sure she can be sweet. However, Mars seems to loath Diana with a passion for being such good friends with Jae.

She knew it was only a matter of time before the relationship was ended, but she's extremely angry that Mars was just so selfish about it. Diana's extremely worried about her friend. He's just so depressed over the raven-haired beauty dumping him and leaving him flat.

When Diana found out that Mars never wanted so much as to lay eyes on him again, she was about ready to kill her.

As she approaches the door, she wonders how anyone could possibly hurt such a sweet guy.

She raps the door with her knuckles.

After a few moments, she calls, "Jae? Are you in there?"

She tries the door and finds it unlocked.

"JAE!" she screams when the door swings open and she sees him doubled over in a growing pool of crimson.

Part VI
Part VIII
Beginnings and Endings Index