Disclaimers: The Characters in this short fic are owned by Naoko Takeuchi, and are used in America by license of DiC. All except My self and Aurelia Stanton. I own those two.

"Hello, Serena," Aurelia Stanton smiled at her student in greeting. "How are Rei, Amy, Lita, and Mina?"
Serena batted her big blue eyes nervously. Aurelia, after all, was her tutor. Not to mention being older and wiser. Which was how as Sailor Saturn she'd become the Sailor Scouts' unofficial leader. "They're fine."

Aurelia's mind, however, was far from the lighthearted conversation she shared with her friend. Instead, her thoughts dwelled on the dark-haired, mysterious man whose life she'd saved six months before.

She'd come to love him during that time he'd been in hiding from both her people and his own, but knew it was not to be.
For Nephlite's heart belonged to another. Her thoughts soared back to the time she'd discovered that fact. Nephlite had been in hiding for a bit short of two months at the time.

She'd gone to bring him his week's supply of meals as she'd done since rescuing him. Most times he was polite, greeting her with a smile that put a sparkle in his sea-blue eyes.
This night, however, he did not answer the door as he had every time before.
From behind that locked door came a sound she'd never expected to hear. The sound of hoarse, heart-rending sobs.

"Nephlite?" her questing voice probed the darkened apartment. The shadowed form crouched in the corner of the bedroom turned its head.

Aurelia turned on the light. The illumination the flourescant bulbs cast revealed a sight which tore at her heart.
Nephlite knelt on the bedroom's oak floor, flowing mahogany curls mussed, at his knees the picture of a young girl. His breath came in choked, gasping, sobbing gulps.
"Oh, Nephlite," she dropped to her knees in front of him, wrapping her arms around him. His tears dampened her flame-colored tresses as he wept, his chin resting on the top of her head. "

G-gods, I f-feel l-like such a-an idiot," the statement was squeezed out between the hiccups that followed the storm of tears, "I c-can't believe I let m-myself g-get so up-upset over a s-stupid g-girl. I'm e-even st-stuttering, f-for Heaven s-sake. B-but I miss h-her."
Aurelia took his chin between her thumb and forefinger, her other hand gently wiping away the last of Nephlite's tears. "Don't beat yourself up so. Molly was the first girl you trusted enough to truly love. And since you've never loved anyone like that, it's natural you'd overreact a little to missin' 'em."
"I need to ask a favor of you, Auri. Is there any way you can make it possible for me to see her, just to let her know I'm still alive? I hated seeing her the way she was when she thought I was dying, that moment you teleported me away. Please."
"And if she's found someone new? Then what? Are you sure you're ready to face the devestation you're sure to feel if she has?"
Those gem-like blue eyes narrowed at the corners in determination. "Even then. I must do this, Aurelia. Please understand."
Her green eyes slid closed. "I do. It's just. . ." she trailed off, grunting in frustration, "I'm trying to protect you, Neph. If anyone finds out you're still alive, you would be in grave danger. I care about you, you big lug, and I don't want you to get hurt."
He hugged Aurelia's slender form to him. "I know you do, and there is no way I can show the full extent of my gratitude for that. But I have to do this. If I don't, there will be a page of my life left forever unturned. I simply cannot live that way anymore."
"Allright. I can't promise to bring her here or you there, but I can take a taped message to her."
Hope turned Nephlite's eyes a deep sapphire. "You'd do that? Let me get. .. ." his voice, deep and rumbling, broke off as his head disappeared beneath the bed. "Where in Heaven's name did I put that tape recorder?"
Aurelia burst into giggles at the sight of this one who'd once been so evil crouched on his knees with his head stuck under the bed like a boy searching for his favorite toy.
"Ah, here it is," he slid out with the palm-sized mini-recorder clutched in his right hand. Suddenly, he noticed his benefactor's laughter. "And just what are you laughing at?"
She regained her composure with difficulty. Until she caught sight of Nephlite's delicatly-flushed cheeks. That set her laughing again. Which drew at the smile that had been tugging at the corners of the ex-General's mouth, bringing it into full view. It was only a matter of moments and he was laughing right along with her.

Aurelia came back to herself as she watched Serena walking away, her two blond ponytails tugged aloft by the breeze. She stared at the tape in her hand as if she didn't remember removing it from her pocket.

"Molly?"
The fifteen-year-old girl clutched the phone to her ear. "Hi, Aurelia, what's goin' on?"
"I have something important to tell you. Can you meet me at the temple in half and hour?"
"Sure," Molly's New York accent, inherited from her military father, became more pronounced as her excitement grew, "I'll be there."

Aurelia nervously wrung her hands as she waited for Molly to arrive.
"Hi, Auri!" Molly was shorter than her friend by about three inches, with reddish-brown hair and round brown eyes. "What didya hafta tell me that was so important?"
Aurelia pulled the tape from her pocket. "Promise you won't get mad?" "I promise. Now, what is it?"
Auri stuck the tape in the deck. "Just listen to this. It will tell you what I have to say far better than I could."
Molly took the little deck and hit play. Her eyes teared up as the deep, much-loved voice she hadn't heard in six months flowed from the speakers.
"Hello, Molly, Love. To be honest, I'm not quite sure where to start. Well, I guess it's obvious that the rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated." He paused a moment to chuckle at his own witticism. "I know you have probably gotten over me by now and gone on with your life with someone new. I will deal with that if you have. But I had to let you know I've been thinking about you all this time, and I've missed you very much. I love you, Molly, and always will."
"Where is he?" Molly grabbed the other woman's shoulders, shaking her fiercly. "You gotta take me to him now!"
"If you'll give a while, I will show you something you might want to see. I have to make a few calls first, though. Can you meet me back here in an hour?"
Molly nodded in aquiesance. "Allright."

A little over an hour later, Aurelia led a blindfolded Molly to an outspreading oak tree in the temple courtyard.
"Okay, Moll, I'm taking off the blindfold."
Molly gasped. There were hearts carved on nearly every reachable inch of that tree. In those hearts were carved names in an easily recognizable, beautifully flowing script.
"How did you find our tree?" Molly looked up to find a pair of sparkling blue eyes peering back at her.
"I wondered how long it would be before you looked up and noticed me." There, sprawled comfortably among the branches, was Nephlite. He leaped down and embraced Molly.
It was she that broke the embrace, eyes full of tears. "I have something to tell you, Nephlite," Molly's voice was shaky as she spoke, "but I don't know how. Nephlite, I've been seeing someone else."
Nephlite flinched as if he'd been struck. Despite his brave words, the loss left him feeling as if his heart had been wrenched free of his chest. He let forth a howling moan as he fell to his knees.
Molly took him in her arms. "I'm so sorry. I thought you were dead! I'm only fifteen. I can't just give myself away to a memory. I had to go on with my life."
He tore himself away from her and flung himself into Aurelia's waiting arms.
Molly stared in utter shock. "I didn't expect him to react like this."
Aurelia shot the girl a cold stare over the head of the weeping man in her arms.
"Didn't expect him to *react*?" she spat, her voice as icy as the glare she'd pinned the girl with. "What the Hell else *did* you expect? You were his *life*, for Christ's sake. Did you know, or even care, when you dragged him all the way here, begged me to put his life in danger just so you could break his heart in little pieces? The only thing that kept him alive during those first couple of days when it could have gone either way was the hope that he might get back to you again. Well, you've managed to dash that to pieces. Now he has to find another reason to live."
"Aurelia, please don't do this," Nephlite's voice floated up from between her breasts.
"I'm sorry, but these things must be said, and since you won't do it, it's left up to me to do so,"
Aurelia's green eyes flashed angrily when she looked at Molly again. "Nephlite loved you, likely still does. You dumping him destroyed his whole world. Rebuilding won't be easy."
Molly, unable to bear anymore, fled.

A knock sounded on Aurelia's door the next morning. "Auri, it's Ami. Are you up?"
Aurelia yawned and drew her housecoat over her nightgown before answering the door. "I am now. What was important enough for you to wake me at 8:30 on a Saturday morning?"
Ami ran her fingers through her dark pixie-cut. "Serena called me last night. She said Molly had called her and was very upset. She asked me to talk to you. What happened?"
"Ami, Nephlite is alive." Ami's mouth dropped.
"He's been in hiding all this time. You see, I have the ability to teleport objects, and I used that ability to save him. I didn't know the whole story of who he was at the time, of course. The point is, I brought Molly to him at her request. When Molly told him about her new boyfriend, he just broke down. I said some things to Molly in anger that upset her."
"What was it you said to her?"
"The truth, that Molly and the hope of getting her back was the foundation upon which Nephlite had built his world, and that she'd wounded his heart so badly that it would be a long time before he recovered, if he ever fully does."
Ami nodded sympathetically. "That must have been a bitter pill for her to swallow."
"The truth usually is."
Aurelia sighed and plopped down on her bed, chin in her hands. "I love him, Ami. Where do I go from here?"
"Tell him," the slightly accented voice came from a small black cat that stood in the doorway.
"Hi, Luna."
Luna chuckled warmly. "What is it about that man that makes women want him so?"
Aurelia giggled. "He's drop-dead gorgeous, for one thing."
Ami smacked her playfully on the arm. "Auri!"
She sat up, a serious expression entering her green eyes. "There's just something *about* Nephlite. Despite being raised in a completely evil society, he's so very gentle. He has a wonderfully ironic sense of humor. Also, he's incredibly loyal, once you get through all his barriers. What woman wouldn't want a man like that?"
"Hello," Serena's voice echoed in the foyer, "are you decent?"
"I'm in the bedroom. Come on in."
"Allright, where is he? He upset Molly. I have a piece of my mind I want to give him."
"Better not be too big a piece." Auri shot back, "You need to keep as much of it as you can."
"Very funny."
Aurelia stood up. "Don't be too hard on him, Serena. Molly dumped *him*. It was *me* that got Molly all distraught."
"Girls, girls," that rich, husky voice was all too familiar to those present, "cease this useless bickering. There is more at stake here than that whimpering brat's feelings."
Serena and Rei assumed defensive stances, forgetting for a moment that they were in their normal human forms. Which, of course, meant that Serena inadvertantly tripped over one of her long ponytails and fell on her butt.
A deep chuckle sounded, followed by a rushing wind in which a flurry of cherry-blossom petals floated.
A female form appeared among the petals. Her hair was long, caught up in a ponytail, and looked as if it had been spun from honey. Instead of the tempermental flame they were accustomed to seeing, her slanted, cat-green eyes contained glinting sparks of amusement. "I guess some things never change."
"Zoycite," Rei growled, "what are you doing here?"
"*I* live here."
"Rei, ratchet down," Aurelia told her, "it's okay. Zoycite's here at my request. Let me explain."
Aurelia told the other Scouts how she'd found Zoycite and Malachite shortly after becoming Sailor Saturn, huddled behind a dumpster near the mall, the rain dripping from their bedraggled hair.
Using her telepathic abilities, she'd learned of how Beryl, the Negaverse's Queen, had tried to tear apart the relationship her two Generals shared.
For Malachite, already sick of Beryl's manipulative ways, that was the last straw. He and Zoycite packed their meager belongings and left, they hoped for good.
"So you see, they're on our side now."
Zoycite set a hand on Rei's shoulder. "Believe me, I have no intention of doing anything that might benefit that bitch. I love Malachite. Beryl wanted to break us up because she was afraid we'd be more loyal to each other than to her. She's probably right. But so what? She has to be made to realize that sometimes love for another person can make someone more loyal to their home. But not if you try to shape that love to your own ends. Beryl tried that, and now she's out two of her finest warriors. Three, if you count that scum Nephlite."
She floated gently to the floor. A well-built man with wise silver-grey eyes and a silky silver-blond mane that flowed over his shoulders to rest against the small of his back exited the bathroom just then, wearing nothing but the towel around his waist.
Zoycite strode over and hugged him, nuzzeling his neck gently. "Mal, Darling," her voice held a teasing lilt, "as much as I love looking at your wonderful body, I think it would be a good idea if you put some clothes on. After all, it would be a shame if I were forced to slaughter these young ones because they saw a bit more of you than is proper and began lusting after you as a result."
Malachite, to the shock of all present, blushed clean to the roots of his hair. Even the skin of his neck was tinged pink by it.
"I came to get Aurelia," Zoycite stated, "You must come with me, quickly."
Aurelia sensed the anxiousness in the ex-General's tone. "It's Nephlite, isn't it?"
"I don't have time to answer any questions now. Just come on."

Aurelia accompanied Zoycite to the three-bedroom flat where she'd hidden Nephlite. When she opened the door, she stood stock-still in shock.
The place was a shambles, papers and clothes flung on the floor.
A picture, in its frame, smashed against a wall, leaving shards of glass in the wake of its passage.
Nephlite stood in the center of that hurricane of flying objects, eyes glowing, his hair whipping about his face in a wind that was magical in origin.
Zoycite teleported to the heart of that storm, grabbing her rival by the shoulders and shaking him hard.
"You listen to me," she hissed, "listen well."
The storm died, Zoycite having startled him so that his concentration snapped.
"I've hated you for many years, and we both know I have good reason. But Aurelia has never been anything but kind to Malachite and I, so much so that we owe her a debt we can never repay. Therefore, though I don't like you and probably never will, I do this. For I would do anything to keep her from hurting. Even saving someone as worthless as you from himself." Zoycite delivered a stinging slap to his right cheek, one which raised a brilliant emerald mark and snapped him out of his shock. back to the fanfiction page back to the main page