Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Lightning Meets Dragon ❯ Truths and Fights ( Chapter 10 )

From the last chapter

"I've spent a couple of years living like that, my belief is almost all I have left." I turned on my heel and left the room. Leaving Van to think about what I had said before returning to his work. (AN1)

Chapter 11

Truths and fights

~Hitomi's Dressing chambers, afternoon of the ball~

"I can't believe that he didn't tell us about this ball! How are you going to be ready for the party if you keep styling my hair?" Hitomi asked me as she watched my reflection in the mirror, my lips pursed in concentration.

"Don't worry about me, I have my ways to get ready in time. What's important right now is to get you ready, What do you think of the dress that the dressmaker made for you?" "It's beautiful do you think Van will like it?"

"He'll love it but we still have to finish your hair, I'll get one of the servants to do your makeup. Ah! What do you think?" Hitomi looked back at the mirror, her hair was in a delicate bun on the top of her head with select locks of her hair left dangling down.

"It looks beautiful, what are you going to do with your hair?"

"I think I'll leave it down, but oh I forgot something." I turned quickly and took a silver locket off of a red velvet pillow. "Van left this locket for you to wear to the ball, he wants you to leave it closed until midnight. He wouldn't tell me why."

"It's beautiful, could you help me put the locket on?"

"Sure." I reached behind her neck and clasped the necklace on; "Now I'll call a servant to help you with your makeup then I'll go change. I'll meet you behind the main doors in the reception hall."

"Okay, thanks for all of your help Makoto." I smiled at her,

"I love to help others, of course I draw the line at French braids, they don't like me very much!" Hitomi laughed at my joke as I called in some servants to do her makeup and took my leave.

'She looks radiant, I can't wait until she tells Van that she's pregnant, he'll hit the roof I'm sure of it. Or maybe the floor…' I quickly checked that no one was in the hallway before entering my room and locking the door. "JUPITER ETERNAL POWER MAKEUP!!" I was surrounded by a huge orb of electricity and I felt my clothing changing to a forest green dress complete with the symbol of my Jupiter oak evolution attack, my hair went up in it's usual style. But since I felt creative I took out the hair ties and braided my hair so it would lie over my shoulder with two wisps of hair framing my face. I walked in front of the mirror where I left my new scarf and wrapped it delicately around my neck; I twirled around in front of the mirror before I heard a knock at the door who could that be?

"Makoto, are you ready?" Allen's voice called through the door.

"Yes come in." he walked in with a stunned look on his face.

"You look beautiful." I smiled a thank you and took a moment to look at what he was wearing, it looked like his Caeli uniform but it had white gloves and lacked the purplish pink scarf that he usually wore at his neck, this one was white. He looked very handsome. He held out his arm to me,

"Shall we go?" I took the outstretched arm,

"Of course, we shouldn't keep everyone waiting." We walked out of my room; "Did you visit Hitomi yet?"

"I just came from there actually, she was just finishing up and asked me to escort you. I was kind of surprised that you were ready though, Hitomi said that you hadn't even started when you were helping her with her hair a few minutes ago."

"Well I already had my makeup on, it was only a matter of braiding my hair and slipping into my dress and shoes, no big deal."

"I guess not." They walked to the reception hall, Hitomi was leaning her head on Van's shoulder and he had his arm around her. They looked very relaxed and comfortable, I couldn't wait to tell them the secret that was my purpose for coming here, and I would finally be able to invite them to join the Neo-Silver Millennium Alliance. The doors started to open; it was time to greet the guests.

~Fifteen minutes later, royal dining hall~

Everyone was sitting in their designated seats and were participating in minimal dinner conversation, some of the young lords were giving me side glances. As if trying to find out who I was, fortunately I had introduced myself as a landholder and a dear friend of the Queen's. But hard to answer questions do come up and I have just heard the one that took the cake.

"How do you know the Queen?" I looked over at Hitomi and winked at her, I was going to tell them that I was from Earth.

"We met a while back, a year and a half ago was it?" Receiving a nod from Hitomi I continued. "Some guys were bothering her while she was getting off of the train and I 'politely' told them to leave."

"Too bad politely had two of them limping away eh Makoto?" She barely stopped herself from laughing out loud. I just shrugged and looked innocent.

"Three were limping actually, but what can I say? They took on the wrong girl." I took a sip of my wine and looked around the table, Van's advisors didn't look surprised that I kicked the crap out of those guys but the lords, princes, kings, queens, princesses, and ladies were pretty surprised. An added benefit was that the guy to my left, I think he was a prince, stopped flirting with me. Dinner was a very tedious affair soon the ball would start; the ball was delayed for a few minutes because on of the princesses-the one from Zaibach I think- needed to change something about wine on her new dress? Some things will never surprise me, thankfully this also left some time for me to speak with Van and Hitomi. I pulled them aside and asked to speak with them privately for a moment in their office. Van looked puzzled for a second and then agreed, he asked everyone to have a good time while he and Hitomi were in a private meeting. The walk to their office was a little tedious but we finally made it, I closed the door behind us, and Van and Hitomi took the seat behind Van's desk and motioned for me to sit. I did.

"You two are probably wondering why I've asked to see you two alone." They nodded and I got up and produced a set of papers and set them in front of them on the desk. "I'm more than an old friend of Hitomi's and the warrior of protection. I'm the Queen of a world that was destroyed over twelve hundred years ago and was rebuilt two centuries ago. I'm also an ambassador for the Neo Silver Millennium Alliance, my empire belongs to that alliance and I wish for Fanelia to join the alliance." Hitomi and Van shared an overwhelmed and confused look before examining the papers in depth.

"Makoto, why didn't you tell me before? I would have believed you you know." Hitomi said slightly confused.

"Because that isn't the whole story either. It's hard to explain and I'd rather not explain it. It's very long and complicated."

"But…"

"What would we have to do to join the alliance?" Van asked interrupting Hitomi.

"Just sign those documents and you're in and after that try to keep the peace and there's -I always hate this part- a meeting twice a year that can't be skipped. Although I've succeeded a few times!"

"Can we invite our allies as well?"

"Of course, actually we encourage it and there's a surprise if every kingdom on Gaea joins but I can't tell you what it is or you may get countries to join for the wrong reasons… oh! I almost forgot! There's a ceremony and a ball you have to attend it's nothing major though, it's basically an excuse to meet everyone and party until dawn. And it's also a lot of fun if you announce pregnancies, everyone gets together and throws a baby shower and we all party all night and no alcoholic drinks are served at all."

"Will you tell us the whole story of your past if we sign?" Hitomi asked, intent on receiving an answer.

"Don't worry about that, you'll learn the whole story even if you don't sign. I owe you that much for lying."

"Can Hitomi and I have a moment alone to discuss it?" Van asked.

"Of course, but you'd better hurry and get back, wouldn't want you to miss you own birthday party Hitomi!" I'll be waiting in the Dining room for your decision. I curtseyed and left the room closing the door quietly behind me.

"What do you think we should do? It doesn't seem like there are any drawbacks to joining except the meeting."

"I think we should, Makoto is a close friend of mine and Fanelia could use another alliance, just think Van! We'll get to meet people from all over the galaxy! That'd be kinda nice don't you think?" She looked up at him, lips slightly parted awaiting his response.

"I just don't know, Makoto has been lying to us for days, she even admitted it! But if you don't see any problems with joining I don't either and she did say that we could invite our other allies." He leaned down and kissed her softly of the lips, his tongue gently entering her mouth before breaking the kiss. Hitomi smiled up at him,

"Thanks Van, you don't know how much this means to me." She wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him back and slowly stood up as he rose. The unsigned papers laid on the desk in front of them awaiting their signatures, Van and Hitomi quickly signed the papers folded them up and Van put them in the breast pocket of his shirt.

"We should get back to our guests, there will be plenty of time for kissing after the ball."

"Of course, shall we?" He took her outstretched arm and led her out of the room, they found everyone-including the princess from Zaibach who was now wearing a peach colored gown- waiting in the dining room.

"Sorry about that, we had a very important meeting to attend. Lady Makoto here are the papers, they are signed and ready." He handed them to me, and as soon as they touched my hands they disappeared in a flurry of bright green sparks, heading for Crystal Tokyo.

"Thanks for joining the alliance, although I don't know if you'll enjoy the meetings, I absolutely hate them! I don't know something about nine other planets rulers and the representatives from each of their moons discussing important issues isn't my idea of fun."

"What worlds are part of the alliance? You didn't mention that part."

"Well…" This was going to be hard not to miss any. "There's the planets Mercury, Mars, Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. With the accompanying moons Phobos, Deimos, Earth's moon is uninhabited, Metis, Andrastea, Amalthea, Thebe, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae, Sinope, Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe, Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton, Nereid and last but not least Charon." I managed to get that whole list said in a single breath, I was almost ready to pass out I was so lightheaded. (AN2)

"And which ones are yours?"

"You had to ask one of the longest questions didn't you? Well mine are the planet Jupiter and it's moons, all sixteen of them, Metis, Andrastea, Amalthea, Thebe, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae, and Sinope."
"You rule all of those worlds?! But how?" I laughed at his silly question.

"I've appointed councils to run them and to give me a monthly report, the councils have to do what the people wish of course or they can be replaced. I hold elections each year, just so they don't get too cocky."

"WHAT!!!!! You're royalty?!" It was the princess from Zaibach; she looked quite pale,

"Yes I am, I've always been royalty I just don't show it off so much. All of my good friends are royalty as well. At least of the worlds and moons in the alliance."

"What worlds does Lady Setsuna represent?" Hitomi started to ask but her voice was drowned out by one of the walls exploding in showering everyone with dust. It looked like someone else had joined the party. (AN4)

AN1-where did I come up with such a horrible sentence?!

AN2-don't ever and I mean ever try to say that sentence in one breath. I almost passed out when I tried and I think I got my tongue tied up in several knots in the process…

AN3-I can't take all the credit for finding all the names of the moons, a guy from the United Kingdom did it for his rpg that I'm playing in. I'm Andrastea (Akari Ouhi) and Yami Enzeru a villaness from the new negaverse. If you interested in finding out about this game or joining it please email me and I'll show you the site.

AN4-IT'S THE DREADED CLIFFHANGER!!!!!!!! I COULDN'T RESIST besides this is the worst chapter I've ever written, the dialogue is rushed, the characters are underdeveloped but I had to get this out before Christmas. I thought that I owed you all that much, I may get another chapter out before New Years day but that would take a lot of inspiration *coughreviewscough* at least seven of them and some new ideas. Battles are a lot harder to plan then I thought they were. Have you all forgotten about the 'unknown' senshi from chapter 9? Well she's making an appearance next chapter and it's guaranteed that she will kick a lot of ass!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ja Ne Minna! (Goodbye everyone!)

Don't forget to review, I'm counting on all of you!