To Find Love

Nova’s Tale II – Part 2

My heart and soul still yearns for my beloved Mina, no, not the Mina here in the future but the one that I left by herself, alone and defeated, in the past. My mind and senses tell me that they are the same person but the one near me now doesn’t have the ten years of love that we developed for each other but our souls are still intertwined together as one. I talked with the Sailors and the cats while Mina bathed Chibi. Chibi contacted me to tell of her exacting review of her body by Mina but she didn’t object because she loves the Mina here as much as she loves her mother. The Sailors are so different in some aspects but the same in most areas. Ami is still the genius with the heart of warmth that I found years ago so some things don’t changed – the soul remains the same. I do have to say that Chibi looked so funny when she appeared holding Mina’s hand dressed in a tee shirt that fell to her feet. She looked like she was shrunken by her two hour bath but she seemed to have survived.

The first thing she did as she started to bed was to grab Artemis and carried him to her futon. He never complained about her rough handling of him and he wasn’t complaining now. His princess has returned to him and he wasn’t to let her get away again. We stayed up about an hour after Chibi turned in for the night and we talked about the past, both theirs and mine. Mina took a position to my left side and within a couple of seconds of her assuming that place; she slipped her hand inside mine and rested them on her thigh. After about ten minutes, she slid my arm over her shoulder and placed her head against my chest. Strangely, none of the other Sailors gave a strange look at us except for a nod of their approval. It took a little more time but soon Serena moved to my right side and slid my arm around her, “Well, he’s my uncle.” Within a couple of minutes, all the others had moved close to us, either touching each other by holding their hands or just rest their bodies against each other. I could sense the love and sense of family that was developing between us and I know that I had made the right decision to come to the future. I am needed here at this time and place to save my family but also the future of mankind.

One thing that I didn’t expect was Mina’s acceptance of my proposal. She had Chibi in her arms and she was in mine when I asked her permission to rekindle our relationship. I just wanted to ask her if we could go together, get to know each other and see what develop but things escalated and soon I had a engagement ring in my hand and she was putting it on her finger. She did point out that marriage on the Earth was different and she expected me to wait until she graduated from ‘high school’. Going to school to learn, what will they think of next? I just open myself to the universe and the knowledge flow into me. Things are so different here on Earth at this time but I’ve Mina to get me through everyday life in this new world. I think that I will survive.

I gave Mina a small kiss on the neck as I left her side on the futon. Chibi stirred slightly as I left my place by them but she didn’t wake up. The sounds of slumber filled the room and it was a peaceful sound. I stroke Luna as I passed her where she was asleep in Serena’s arms like that was the only place where the black cat felt comfortable. They may have their outburst but I can feel the love those two have for each other. I made my way through my family until I was at the door to the shrine area, the only room that was large enough to fit all of our bedding and us. The moon was full in the sky as I open the door. I walked out into the moonlight enticed by the pale yellow light flooding the veranda around the shrine. I smiled as I looked up at the glowing sphere in the sky. It’s farther in the sky than it was when I left. I can barely make at the features that I engrained in myself from the years on living on its surface.

A long time had passed but I opened my mind and the Fortress responded to my call. After a few greetings, it started to transfer the information it has accumulated during the last thousand years. The transmission only took a couple of minutes but it would be days before I could sort through the immense quantity it had gathered. Wars, plagues, but also triumphs were there for me to gleam. It paid unusual interest in a heroine from England, Sailor V, that I found out was my darling Mina before she took up the mantle of Sailor Venus again. The world has come through great suffering but it had survived against all threats. I’m glad that my coming to the future changed the Earth’s future. In all but one of the twists of the skein of time saw the Earth being destroyed. I took that one thread that could preserve this world and mankind. Maybe I did make the right decision in the end. The Earth and its inhabitants survived the dark night of the lost memories but it had remained the cradle of man that I needed for the future. We do have a chance, a small chance but a crystal clear destiny that I can build the future upon.

I stood at the railing for what seemed hours but couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes. I made up my mind that I was going to give them back their memories in the morning. Not their final memories but all their memories of our time together on the moon. I turned around and saw the small figure closing the door to the shrine area, “Daddy, we are going to stay, aren’t we?” I could almost see the tears that would well up in her eyes if I would say no but I also knew that she would follow any decision that I made. I motioned her to come to me and she ran across the six feet that separated us and leapt into my arms. I held her close, “Yes, Princess, we are going to stay. We will make our family whole again in this place.” I sighed and took a deep breath, “I asked Mina to marry me and she said that we would in a couple of years.”

I waited for her reaction and it came unexpected, “A couple of years … what’s wrong with this world. She’s ten years older than she was when you first got married. I’m not going to wait for my mother. She’s in there, deep inside but I know that she loves us. I … just want … to be with her.” I held my daughter closer to my chest, “I know, I want to be with her too but we have to wait until she’s ready but nothing in this world or the next prevents her from being your mother now. Start calling her mommy and see how she reacts. I think that she will react favorably to the name.” Chibi smiled at me as she squirmed down to the floor, “I’m going to crawl next to mommy, don’t stay up too much longer. You need to get your sleep.” She turned and headed for the door, I love you, Daddy.” My smile reached from one side of my face to the other, “I love you, too.” She closed the door and I heard her settling down in the room.

No, my little girl, I want her more than you can imagine. I thought that I had lost her in the past and I’m not going to lose her again. She is my whole world and as the moon, I want to get closer to her every day. I stretched my hand to the glowing globe in the sky and united with the untold force of the Fortress and drew the moon closer to the Earth into a slightly different orbit. It would be months before anyone noticed but I had to move that world closer to fully gain my power. The minuscule shift in its axis exposed the power of the black hole to me. Within a few days, I will regain my full strength so I can protect my family.

I submerged myself in the moonlight thinking about the past. I remember that single day when my future was apparent. I was sitting with Serena in the garden behind the private quarters just looking at the beauty of the Earth expanding across the heavens. Serena was looking dreamily off to the planet where Darien was needed and just left that morning to travel to his home on family business. He had to return to his father’s estate to observe a ceremony --- we all have our duties but it left me with a lovesick niece and a wife that was close to delivering our first child. Mina wanted some time alone so I left her in Artemis care and took a walk in the rose garden where I met Serena.

We talked for an hour when she asked me, “Nova, where did the Silver Crystal come from? It’s been in our family for a long time but I never knew where we found it.” The Silver Crystal, the source of the Silver Kingdom’s power and its curse. I thought for a moment about the history of the glittering gem that I had against my chest. I found myself pondering on the single thought about whether or not to edit the true story but Serena has been my closest supporter so she deserved the absolute truth. “Serena, it all started many years ago, more years that I can imagine in my wildest dreams. Our distance ancestor, the first Lord of the Moon, established the first buildings that would one day be this structure that stands before us.” I waved my hand at the Crystal Palace; “he was leveling the site for the foundation when he came upon a cavern underneath our feet. A small cavern but dense with crystals that formed from the first waters that fell upon the moon. They were brilliant in their beauty and he brought them from the cavern to build the doors to the grand hall. As he was removing the last of the crystals, he came upon a small crystal, no bigger than a large marble but he knew it was different.”

“It was the Silver Crystal, wasn’t it?” was the question from her. “Yes, Serena, it was the Silver Crystal but he didn’t know that fact. He just knew that it was different than all the others so he decided that he would give it to his wife. He fashioned the crystal into a brooch and present it to her as a birthday present. She took the gift and placed it on her neck and an explosion of light came from it that blinded everyone for a couple of minutes. Our distance grandmother was the first one that knew the power and was wise enough to use that power to defeat her husband’s enemy instead of personal gain. Little did she know but her defense brought the creatures of the darkness into an alliance against House Moon. If the crystal had never been found, the Negaverse may never have banded together so we wouldn’t be involved in this eternal war.” I stopped for a moment for her to gather her thoughts, “Yes, my love, we brought the pain and suffering of numerous generations upon ourselves. The Silver Crystal gave us immense power for it was a shard of the first explosion that formed our universe. It was unpolluted by evil or darkness, it knew only good and light. It forced itself and its philosophy upon the Duchess and soon she thought of nothing else but defeating the darkness that she grew to detest.”

I saw the look on Serena’s face. We had brought our destruction on ourselves. The Silver Crystal is both a blessing and a curse but I didn’t tell her the complete and unfretted truth about the gem. The Dark Queen enlightened me one day when she was feeling unpleasant. The crystal seeks out one true love but the holder is destined to lose that love to the forces of darkness. The first duchess lost her husband from an attack upon the Crystal Palace and my own sister lost her husband fighting against the monsters. I haven’t been spared from the curse since I lost everyone in the past when I came to the future but I’m happy now. You see, I not afraid of the Silver Crystal because even though I hold the majority of it in my amulet above the center of my chest; I know that it can‘t hurt me again. I have read the old scrolls left by our house’s founder especially the passage that reads, “Once the mate of the holder passes from this realm, the surviving one will never lose her again.” I know that these words were meant for me. I have lost Mina once but I will never lose her again. My heart soars with joy of that single thought.

I slowly open the door to our sleeping area and carefully place myself beside Mina. I slipped an arm over her shoulder and around Chibi. I eased myself closer to Mina and suddenly she shifted her body against me and while still asleep reached for my other arm and placed her head on it. I kissed the back of her head and drifted off to sleep knowing that my family was in my arms. Even though the Silver Crystal conspired against me, I defeated its curse in the end and what problems is before me, it will play no part in using its power against me.

So Nova turns to sleep to soothe his nerves but what will happen when the Sailors that remembers him comes to him in the night. Find out in the next installment, “Reunion, the meeting of friends”.