Serenity sighed happily. After all of their hard work, both physical and magical, their first building was finished. Serenity loved it--a light gray palace, large enough to house all of them for now, until the other planets had buildings put up, and in the morning it glowed palely, almost like polished silver, while in the evening it took on a golden hue. The lavender grass that was native to the planet reminded her of home, and she'd had a special courtyard built for her silverberry cutting, which still managed to cling to life. Serenity looked around at the wild flowers--all seemed to have a light purple or blue shade to them. She couldn't wait to see what Gaia's planet had in store for them. But first things first. They had to all work hard to establish the outer planets, their first defense against outside attack, before they could start on the inner ones. Serenity looked up into the sky, but the star in the center of the system made the sky too bright for her to see their first destination. Hades' planet.
*****
Charon shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The ship was about to land on her husband's new planet, and the straps on the gravity seats were not made to handle a woman in the final stages of pregnancy. She felt the baby shift inside her, and kick out in anger at her stomach. The gravity began to increase as they sped toward the planet's surface, and she once more regretted not having a ship with artificially regulated gravity, like Aphrodite's.
She closed her eyes as the ship jarred to a stop, and she waited for someone to come and help her get out of the gravity seat. It was Serenity who came and unbuckled her and pulled her out of the deeply padded chair. The two women walked out of the room and started down the gangplank together, toward a small bubble with safe air and a survivable temperature. Charon was not prepared for what happened as her foot touched the surface of the planet. A shock ran up her leg, rushed through the rest of her body, and left her gasping and dizzy. Her knees buckled and Serenity looked over at her in concern.
"Charon! What's wrong?!" Charon saw her friend hover over her, and tried to force words out--tried to explain the pain that seared though her belly. It felt as if a hot, sharp-bladed star had just been born inside of her, and she feared for the safety of her baby. Serenity must have seen the panic in her eyes--she turned to Hades and Sol and said something to them, but Charon was too busy holding in a cry of pain to hear what she said. Instead she closed her eyes and let the encroaching blackness wash over her. Her last thought was <What about the baby?!>
******
Serenity looked at the unconscious Charon with worry--for some reason, she had gone into early labor, and a painful one at that. Serenity lifted the cover over the new baby's face. There was a small tuft of hair, and it was a dark green. Serenity shuddered as a thought crossed her mind. Suddenly Charon's odd behavior over the past few months made sense.
She put on a happy face for her husband and Hades. "Congratulations! You have a healthy new baby girl!" Hades stood up.
"What about Charon?" He was so worried for her. Serenity only hoped he never realized the truth. . .
"She's fine--very tired, but fine. You should let her rest. She said she wanted you to name your new daughter before she fell asleep." She pulled back the cover over the baby's face again and held it out to Hades.
The second Hades' hands touched her, a strange symbol, like a "P" crossed with an "L" appeared in black on her forehead, and her chest began to glow almost as bright as the stars. Serenity brought her hands to her mouth as she tried to understand what this meant, but the two men didn't seem to notice anything. Instead, Hades gently reached out to touch one large finger to the baby's forehead, right on the symbol, and smiled gently as he whispered, "Her name is Pluto."
*****
"You didn't see anything strange?" Serenity was being so insistent about this, and Sol just couldn't understand why.
"No." He shook his head. "Maybe you should just tell me what you noticed, and it'll jog my memory."
She shook her head vigorously, her hair whipped back and forth. "No, this isn't something you just 'fail to notice', Sol." She reached out and took his hands in her own. She pulled him close and looked straight into his eyes, speaking very slowly. "Her forehead glowed black ! Her heart glowed through her chest! That's not just something you fail to notice!"
Sol took his hands out of his wife's and waved them in the air as he shook his head. "Whoa! Okay, you're right, if I had seen that, I'd remember it. But dear," he took a deep breath and kept any hint of accusation or doubt out of his voice, "how can something glow black? This just doesn't make sense. I really didn't see any of this."
Serenity sat down, frustration emanating from her in waves. "I know . That's why I don't understand. It's almost as if she had a--" Serenity stopped speaking with a gasp. Sol leaned toward her, concerned.
"What is it?" He placed his hands on her shoulders as the look of shock slowly faded from her face. "What have you thought of?"
She raised wondering eyes up to him. "What is the biggest difference between me and you and Hades?"
Sol thought about that for a second. He suppressed a grin. There was always the obvious answer, but he didn't think she was talking about gender. "I don't know. What?"
"What do I have that you two don't?"
Sol smothered a childish chuckle. She was digging a deeper hole for herself, but her face said she wasn't in the mood for teasing. "I'm not really good with riddles, Serenity. You know that."
"I have a planet crystal."
Sol suddenly understood. "Yes--I remember. As soon as your mother said that she wouldn't fight Chaos anymore, you joined the Resistance, and you said it was because--"
"The crystal left my mother when she gave up, and it fell to me. I had no choice but to continue the battle my mother couldn't fight anymore."
Sol cocked his head to one side, still confused. "But I don't understand what significance that has."
"I think that only I could see this, because only I already have a planet crystal. You see, I think that when Charon stepped onto this planet, that doesn't already have it's own warrior, with a baby in her womb, the planet imbued it's crystal into the child."
"You mean that Pluto is-"
"The protector of this planet--it's senshi."
*****
Luna walked into Serenity's study and quietly waited for her to finish going over the piece of paper she was holding. When Serenity was done, she looked up at the dark-haired woman with a weary smile.
"Yes, Luna?"
"I thought I should report to you that Poseidon's wife had a healthy new baby girl born to her, and according to Aphrodite, this child too has a planet crystal."
Serenity leaned over her desk with a sigh and rubbed her eyes. "Another girl? How odd! Well, thank goodness Aphrodite's a skilled midwife as well as another planet senshi. It would be tiring to have to travel to all these births myself to verify whether the child's a senshi." She looked back at Luna. "What's this child's name?"
"Her name is Neptune, Queen Serenity."
Serenity smiled and waved her hand at Luna. "No, no, just call me Serenity. No need for titles. Hmmm. Neptune. That makes it three so far--Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune. Oh, and isn't Gaia due any day now?"
Luna nodded. "Yes, your Majesty. That's another reason I came in to see you. She moved onto her planet only a month ago or so, but already she's found a major problem."
"What is it, Luna."
"There are already sentient beings her planet. They're not very advanced at all yet--they're still in the Stone Age, but fast approaching the widespread use of metals. Most of them seem to be concentrated in just a few small areas of the planet's surface, but one of those areas is the place Gaia and her people decided to land. They had already met up with the creatures when they discovered their existence."
"Have they been threatening in any way?"
Luna shook her head. "They're still too awe-struck. I think we'll want to keep it that way. We don't want violence to break out. Even though we could probably keep ourselves safe there, there are many more of them than us at the moment."
Serenity nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. Establish good contact with them, and maybe we could even push their development along as much as we can. After all, wouldn't it be nice if we could raise our own allies? We'll need all the help we can get when Chaos finally finds us. Tell Gaia I trust in her discretion." Serenity looked over at one of the stacks of paper on her crowded desk. "Anything else?"
"No, your Majesty."
"Well, I guess that means it's back to my paperwork."
Luna recognized a dismissal when she heard one, and backed out of the room.
*****
"This main settlement is on a small island in that warm sea between two of the largest continents," Gaia said as she and Serenity strolled through her palace, just finished. "We use wind powered ships to do our trading with these people, and we hire them to help us build our city. So far we've kept them from realizing just how advanced we are--I don't want to make them start worshipping us--but we've also convinced them it would be the height of stupidity to try to fight us in any way."
Serenity gave her a smile of approval, and Gaia could feel herself responding. Sometimes it annoyed her that Serenity had that sort of effect on her, but since it was the same for everyone, she ignored her small stirrings of resentment. Instead she pointed at their first garden. "Our crops are doing well. This is one of the best growing climates on the planet. We should have no problems with providing food for everyone on all the other planets."
Serenity nodded. "Good. I knew I could count on you for this." She motioned at the fields and all of the natives mingling with her people. Then she turned to look directly at Gaia. "How are you doing?"
Gaia smiled. "I'm fine. One nice thing about having powers over fertility is having children isn't much of a worry." Serenity nodded.
"I'm glad. When are you due?"
"Any day now. My husband is very worried about me. He keeps trying to make me lie down and rest. I can only do so much of that before I want to start tearing things apart, so it's nice that you've come for this visit. It gives me an excuse to get out." Gaia looked over at one of the natives that happened to be walking by. "They look a lot like us, but their greatest difference from us is their lifespan."
"What do you mean?"
"Their lives are so short. They measure their year by the orbit of their planet--"
"Just like us," Serenity agreed with a nod.
"But they only live for forty or fifty years, on average. Though I've heard reports that some have lived as long as 80 years."
Serenity slowed her walk to a crawl. "But their years are already only half as long as ours. And you say they only live up to 80 of their years?" Gaia nodded. "But their lives must be so short!"
"We've only been here for five of our years, but that's a fourth of most of these peoples' lives. By the time this child is grown," Gaia patted her large stomach, "roughly ten generations of the natives will have been born."
Serenity shook her head. "So short as that?" She stood quietly by Gaia, looking at the people working the fields and trading goods. After a minute or so Gaia put her hand on Serenity's shoulder.
"We should go back to the palace now." She struggled to keep her voice steady, but she saw Serenity look at her with concern.
"What's wrong, Gaia?"
She brought forth a smile, but ruined it with a gasp as another contraction rippled through her. "I'm afraid the baby has decided it want's to be born today. We really should start walking back to the palace right now." She urged. Serenity nodded with concern.
"Of course! Let me help you!" She put her arm under Gaia's shoulders, and they quickly walked back to the palace.
*****
Sol met Serenity's ship just as it touched down. She stumbled out of the hatch as soon as it opened, and Sol caught her a she seemed to fall against him. "Serenity! What's wrong?"
"I'm just so tired, Sol. I was helping Gaia with her birth, and before that I was touring her planet with her, and then I had to pilot the ship back. We've had our first baby boy born here. His name is Endymion. He's a planet senshi as well." She snuggled up against him with a small sigh. "It's good to be back."
Sol bent over and picked up her legs with one hand, keeping a good grip on her back with the other. Then he solemnly carried her inside. She put her arm around his neck, and he smiled down at her. "I'll just take you to our room, and you can rest."
She strained her neck up, and gave him a long kiss. When she finally broke away, his head was spinning, and he heard her say, in a dreamy voice, "Well, maybe I'm not that tired."