MEMORY 9

Jadeite reluctantly got down from the exclusive ship. Telling his friends about Nephrite's missing, made his stomach twisted in fear and guilt. From he heard, the news of previous night, hadn't reach Tokyo yet. Hell, it happened in the middle of no where! That made him more and more uncomfortable.

He had made up a few reasons why Nephrite can get lost in the sea. After he came up with so many stupid reasons, he decided to tll them the truth. Deep in his heart, he was cursing Nephrite for getting him into this kind of situation. He barely said thank you or even smile at the porter who kindly brought his bags out because he was so miserable.

From far, he could see Kunzite and Zoisite were talking and laughing while waiting for him. They won't be laughing right now if they know the truth. Jadeite thought and his jaw went rigid. Gathered his shattered courage, he went up to see them. He was preparing for thousands of questions that they will fired when they noticed Nephrite wasn't with him.

"Hey, Matthew! Over here!" Zoisite waved his hand, trying to get his attention. Jadeite approached them and curved a smile that he felt like a plastic smile.

"How's the reception?" Kunzite asked. When Jadeite opened his mouth to answer him, Zoisite noticed the missing.

"Where's Maxfield?" Jadeite swallowed hard at the question. Taking at deep breath he began to speech out the incident.

"Well, to answer your question, Zack, I believe you both should have a seat," Both of them frowned at his answer. Curiosity and suspicion began to grow.

"We don't have to sit down. Spit it out, man!" Kunzite folded his arms at the sign of irritation. Jadeite let out a huge breath. He rapidly told them what happened and when he finished, both of them had their jaw dropped.

"You've got to be kidding!" Zoisite whispered in unbelievable. He was one of the Dark Kingdom general. As long as he could remember, general had never drown. This is insane! Nephrite? Drowned?!

"Who's the hell is Lita, anyway," Kunzite was frowning even deeper now. He was furious, irritate and most of all shock. It all happened so sudden and he was having hard time to catch up. An hour ago, he was happily made plan with Zack to go some place to have a dinner in conjunction of Jadite and Nephrite's arrival. He was bored to death this week, handling the business and he eagerly wanted to give back the responsiblity to Nephrite. And now...

"I'm not sure...but I have talked to her uncle,"

"Well, find her uncle back....." Kunzite stopped right there when he saw something.

"What?" Jadeite asked when he abruptly stop. He turned at his direction together with Zoisite. They saw a group of young ladies together with a tall man whom they knew so well. It was not what Kunzite saw made him stopped speaking. It was what he realized.

"They've noticed us! Let's get out of here," Kunzite whispered to them panicly. He had no desire to fight with them. Not when their prince was fighting them too. They walked away when they heard the footsteps was coming closer.

"Stop it right there!" Raye shouted at them. People seemed to ignore her voice but the four general heard her clearly. Serena was ready to raise her hand to shout the usual transform words when Zoisite held her hand to stop her.

"We meant no harm!" he said to her when Serena struggled. "And don't you all dare to transform here because we have no intention to fight with you!" he continued held her hand but it was looser than the first time.

His words made all the four girls and Darien went still. Rei knew that Zoisite wasn't lying because she couldn't sense any evil spirit from any of them. But she didn't dare to believe that. Not when they had been killed by the dark Kingdom once.

"Release my hand first," Serena managed to croak out. Instantly, Zoisite let go her hand. Amy stepped forward. "We thought we've killed all of you,"

"Yes, you have. It is a long story. Maybe we should to somewhere less noisy," Jadeite pushed his blond hair from his forehead.

"We can't. Not until we find Lita," Mina said. At the mention of Lita's name, the three general's eyes widened in surprise.

"Who?" Kunzite asked uncertainly.

"Lita Kino," Mina repeated in curiosity. The three generals looked at each other trying to put back the story in line.

"Come with us now because we think we have quite interesting story story," Zoisite turned around leaving all five of them confused.

* * * * * * *

Lita woke up, feeling tired as usual. She couldn't sleep well last night because she kept waking in the middle of the night. It was miracle that she managed to scream like an idiot again. She had a headache and her bones was protesting every movement she made, demanding her to get some sleep. But she couldn't. Not when everytime she closed her eyes the same horrifying picture kept repeating.

Fighting the urge to sleep, she stood up. As she brushed her brown hair with her finger, she watched Maxfield slept peacefully. An unconscious smile appeared as she continued watching her. Somehow, seeing him pleased her tremendously, having his strong arms around her made her felt safe and secure and feeling his soft lips on hers brought her to heaven.

He was thoughtful and concern and whoever managed to be his bride was the luckiest woman alive. Except her. She was an immortal and an immortal cannot be in love. She will see her beloved grew old and died and then she will be alone again. She wasn't like Rei, who can live without love. And she certainly wasn't like Amy. Eventhough she was an immortal and had all those great powers, inside, she was still a woman who need to be loved.

Tearing her eyes from him, she went inside the jungle, hoping to find a stream. As she walking, she marked an 'X' on every trees. Having a long life is so hard. She had lost both of her parents when she was a little girl. She accepted that as a fate that she had to follow. But then, she had no friends either from old school or new school. In fact every one was afraid of her. She had spent most of her life living as lonely girl, who had no parents to love her and friends to comfort her. Still, she believed fate had made it that way and she had to obey. Now, she was an immortal and she had to serve Princess Serenity for eternity. Yet, she still can smile and laughed even though all her dream to have a family had destroyed.

She used to have that dream when she was very little and now...Lita realized a tear had fallen and she quickly brushed it off. No one will see me hurting.

* * * * * *

"We are wasting our time! Giving her all those useless dream ain't getting us anywhere!" The lady on the emerald chair roared in frustration.

"My lady. She was battling with her feeling and she didn't care much about the dreams. Perhaps we should use another way," Vanessa bowed frightenly.

The lady went silent as if she was thinking. "Yes, you're right. We should use another way but first, she had to leave the island first,"

"Should I stop giving her those dreams?"

"No! Keep doing that and once she was out from the island, I'll tell you what to do," The lady instructed. When Vanessa was out of sight, she stood up and watching Lita had a bath in stream.

"Soon, my princess, you'll be reunited with your mother and father forever!"