The Family Not Known

12/18/04

The Telling of a Tale.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to tell you a tale of love that is not really well-known. It was told to me as a child. It was a favorite then and it still is today,” Billie said, once she had done a few standard illusions that most magicians perform, hers being real of course. Then she continued with, “I guarantee that you have never seen a story told this way before!”

“I have yet to find this tale written in any text, it’s been handed down generation to generation, by
the word of mouth. It is a legend of long ago.”

Billie began the tale as stars appeared above everybody’s head, “Millennia ago, there was peace in most of the universe. As luck would have it, the fighting was not too far away from our solar system, but it had yet to start here.”

Darien, Serena, and the other girls were all surprised, by what they heard. They were even more surprised by what they saw next. Above Billie’s head appeared a castle with a night sky , behind the castle wasn’t the moon though...it looked like the Earth! It was Darien’s turn to choke on his drink. No, he thought, it can’t be! Does she know our story? Darien looked to Serena and saw the questioning look in her eyes as she looked back at him. He shrugged his shoulders, showing that he didn’t know what was going on.

@}~`~,~~

“There was peace in the solar system. Each planet was part of an alliance. The leader of the alliance was Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. She had one child, a daughter, Princess Serenity, who was brought up to follow in her mother’s footsteps as leader of the alliance, as were all the oldest children in the family before her.” An image of a queen and a princess replaced that of the castle. They didn’t really have facial features, but you could tell that they were both really beautiful.

The queen disappeared and the princess was surrounded by eight other girls, some older and some
younger. Once again there were no faces, but their beauty was known. “The princess’ court was
made up of the oldest princess for the ruling family of each planet.”

All the girls were replaced with the image of a young man, even though you couldn’t see what his face was exactly like, you could tell he was handsome. “Earth’s ruling family had no daughter, but they did have a son, Prince Endymon.” The prince was joined by an image of the princess. “One day, when the prince was on the moon on matters of his parents, the two met and fell in love.” The prince and princess moved closer together and embraced each other. “The princess was still too young to marry and they had to wait until after her next birthday. In the meantime, they only danced with each other at balls, and prince Endymon, visited the moon often.” The image of the prince and princess dancing looking into each other’s eyes lovingly, faded into nothing.

The stars reappeared, but this time they seemed more dangerous, more scary. “One day the planets began to fall under attack by an evil force.” Earth appeared with the stars still behind it. You could tell that it was being attacked, could see the explosions that were happening on the surface. “Earth was attacked and eventually conquered as had the other planets attacked before it. After the Earth was defeated, people who left after it happened were suspected as spies for the enemy.”

Once again the Moon Kingdom was seen. “Prince Endymon had fled to the moon after the defeat of Earth, and before the death of his parents. Queen Serenity knew that he was no threat to them. Before it was safe for him on the moon though, the queen’s orders to let him pass the gates freely spread to all her guards, he had to stay hidden. Not even Princess Serenity knew where he hid, only the queen did.

“Once every day or two, Prince Endymon snuck into the castle’s garden and met his love near her
balcony.”

The audience was looking upon the two lovers, once again. They were on her balcony. “One evening, on her balcony, Princess Serenity was sad because Prince Endymon couldn’t come to the
ball that night. ‘Surely Mother’s orders have spread through the guards by now!’ she said.”

“‘We cannot take that chance, my love. Your mother will send word to me when it is safe to be
seen. She knows that I will fight to help protect your kingdom.’”

“He leaned down to kiss her before she could argue any more. Just as their lips met, they heard
three guards running towards them in the garden below. He had been spotted!” Prince Endymon’s image ran across the balcony, to the other side of where the guards were coming from. “‘Stop him!” a guard shouted.”

As Prince Endymon jumped over the edge, Princess Serenity moved to the side of the balcony closest to the guards, “Pointing the guards in a different direction than the prince took, Princess Serenity called, ‘Quickly, he went over that way!’” The guards moved in the direction that she pointed.

“Keeping to the shadows along the building, Prince Endymon found his way to his hiding place. When he arrived, a messenger, sent by Queen Serenity, was there with information for him.”

Suddenly the scene above the heads of the audience disappeared and everybody was surrounded by blurred faced people. At the back of the room, musicians played. At the front of the room, behind Billie, a staircase rose into the ceiling above them. When the audience looked at each other and themselves, they saw that they all were wearing formal eveningwear. It was as if they were part of the party. A small number of people watched their clothes, as well as the clothes of the people around them, as they moved, and watched in amazement as the garments moved when they moved.

They watched as Princess Serenity descended the staircase. “The princess was sad because she thought that her love wouldn’t be attending the party.” With a wave of her hand, Billie pointed to some princes along a wall opposite the staircase. “There were some princes form the other planets that were thinking that they could be able to steal her heart from Prince Endymon.”

“Before she even made it to the bottom of the staircase she heard a voice say, ‘Such a look of sadness can only serve to mar the face of such a beautiful lady.’ A masked man stepped out of the shadows, wearing armor that she immediately recognized. ‘Princess, may I have this dance?’ he asked as he held one hand out to her and removed his mask with the other. When she placed her hand in his, he could feel the glares of the other princes like daggers in his back. As the couple turned around from the foot of the staircase towards the dance floor, the princes saw who had the princess’ attention and they knew their chance to tempt Princess Serenity was lost before they ever had it.”

As the couple danced, Billie continued with her story.

“Prince Endymon said to Princess Serenity, ‘I’ve got some news, My Love, that you may not like.’”

“‘What is it?’”

“‘Word has reached your mother that the enemy is ready to attack at any time, and I have promised to help defend the Moon Kingdom, by protecting you and your mother.’”

Billie stepped to the side as a couple that was dancing moved past her, moving the edge of her gown as they passed, to where the table were. Once the couple was between Billie and the audience, they faded out of existence and the audience gasped.

Billie gave the audience a grim look, “Even knowing what she knew, Queen Serenity didn’t cancel the ball that night, but any subsequent ones were. She wanted her friends and subjects to have one last time of happiness before they went to war.”

“The two lovers danced through the next three songs, then Prince Endymon led Princess Serenity
to the balcony for some air and some privacy.

The scene before and around the audience changed once again. They were looking at a balcony in
front of them and the dancers were gone, and their clothing returned to normal.

\"\'Serenity,\' Prince Endymon said as he pulled her into his arms, \'I want you to know that you to know that, whatever happens, I will always love you.\'\"

\"\'I love you too. For all time!\'\" she said.

\"Prince Endymon released she and pulled away slightly, placing something in her hands. When she looked down, she saw that he had placed her locket in her hands. \'I don\'t need this to remind me of you now. I\'m not going anywhere until the enemy is defeated,\' he told her.\"

\"\'You keep it for me until the fighting is over,\' she told him as she placed the locket back in his hands.\"

\"\'But Serenity...\' he started, but she put a finger on his lips.\"

\"\'Until we can be alone together in a time of peace.\'\"

\"Prince Endymon pulled Princess Serenity against his chest again, and said, \'I don\'t think that you
realize just how much I love you.\'\"

The image of Prince Endymon leaned down as Princess Serenity looked up to him, and they kissed. \"The kiss they shared was full of both the love they had for each other and the fear of the
uncertainty of their future. As the kiss broke, they heard the guards running to their posts, getting
ready for battle.\"

\"One guard ran past the couple and the prince stopped him, demanding to know what was happening.\"

\"\'The enemy has begun attacking the castle\'s outer walls,\' the guard told them, then continued to
his post.\"

As the guard\'s image disappeared, Prince Endymon grabbed Princess Serenity\'s hand and entered the palace once again. The scene changed to another balcony where Queen Serenity was standing, watching as her army fought along with armies from the other planets to protect her kingdom. Prince Endymon and Princess Serenity arrived and walked up to stand beside the queen.

\"When Princess Serenity looked out over the battle, she saw her friends leading the armies from their planets. Both she and Prince Endymon felt guilty for not being by their sides in the fight. But the princess did not know that they would be out there, and the prince had made the agreement with the them that he would defend the present and future rulers of the moon with his life if need be.\"

@}~`~,~~

Billie paused for a moment and took a few deep breaths as the images before the audience disappeared. This is always the hardest part for her, thought Kolt as he watched. Though he had seen her tell this story a number of times before, it always amazed him.

@}~`~,~~

The audience gasped as a battlefield filled with soldiers fighting with swords and others using magic. The image changed to one of the bodies of soldiers from both sides. \"The battle was long
and hard, both sides had heavy causalities. Though despite all their efforts, the queen\'s forces were no match for the enemy.\"

The scenes continued to change to fit the rest of Billie\'s tale, everything happened os she said it.

\"The three on the balcony could see the leader of the enemy army, an evil queen.\"

\"The evil queen sent an energy wave attack at Princess Serenity. Queen Serenity used her magic to weaken the attack, but it did not stop. Prince Endymon had, in the meantime, ran in front of his love to shield her with his body. The wave hit him instead, greatly injuring him. If the attack had been full strength, the two would have perished.\"

\"The evil queen had heard of the love between Princess Serenity and Prince Endymon. After seeing the prince, she decided that she should have him as her own.\"

\"The evil queen saw how weakened Prince Endymon was and pulled him through the air towards her, with her magic. As he neared the railing, Princess Serenity ran towards him, trying to grab his hand and keep him with her. Queen Serenity tried to reach her daughter, but couldn\'t make it to her before she fell over the railing. The same magic that held Prince Endymon in the air, caught Princess Serenity there as well, and drained her energy, weakening her life force.\"

\"Queen Serenity looked upon the bodies of her daughter and her daughter\'s love. Saddened and
angered, she yelled, \'Noooo!\' The wand in her hand responded and there was a bright flash of
light and the evil queen and her army were banished to another realm for eternity.\"

A bright light flashed throughout the room. momentarily blinding the audience. When their sight
returned, the audience. When their sight returned, the audience was surrounded by rubble.

\"Not only was the enemy gone, but the once beautiful palace of the Moon Kingdom was in ruins. Looking around her weakly, the queen noticed that she alone had survived.\"

\"Queen Serenity gave up her life force to use her magic one more time. Using the last of her energy, the queen sent the bodies of Prince Endymon, Princess Serenity, and their two courts to Earth.\" The image was one of Earth with streaks of light racing to the surface.

Then the Earth had the image of Princess Serenity and Prince Endymon standing facing each other, with her locket in their hands between them. \"They one day would be born again with no memory of the pain from the end of their lives on the moon. They would be able to find each other and live happily together in love, with their friends to watch over them.\" Billie bowed her head and was silent.

@}~`~,~~

The images disappeared and the music stopped. The audience erupted into applause. Billie curtsied. When she straightened, she raised her arms for silence. When all were quiet, \"Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope that you enjoyed the show! I just want to thank your hosts for asking me to perform for you tonight. Also, a thank you to the two guys that helped set up my sound equipment. My boyfriend, Kolton Walker, and a guy that is a friend of a friend that we just met today, Darien Shields.\"

The two men stood up and the rest of the audience applauded again. As they sat down again, eyes started to turn toward Billie once more.

Before everybody could look back to the front of the room, a flash of light followed by a clap of thunder filling the room. Everybody but Kolt, that is. Serena jumped the highest at their table, maybe even in the whole room, and gave a small squawk. Darien wrapped his arm around her and hugged her to him as he rubbed her arm comfortingly.

Once the room calmed down, everybody noticed that Billie was no longer at the stage area.

The heads at his table looked at him as he said, \"That\'s it. Let\'s wait until everybody else goes
before we go in back,\" as the lights came up.

\"I have to make sure everything is alright downstairs first, then make sure Dad has no problem with locking up the arcade up himself tonight,\" Andrew said. Then added, \"I\'ll meet you back there once everything is settled.\" They watched as he stood and walked away from them and down the stairs.

\"I\'ll help take the equipment apart,\" Darien said. Kolt nodded in agreement.

\"We\'ll load it into my car, after everything is gathered together.\"

\"Okay,\" Darien said, nodding.

\"We\'ll help too,\" said Lita, Ami and Rei nodded in agreement. Kolt grinned a thank you to them.

@}~`~,~~

After everybody else cleared the room, Serena noticed that Kolt wasn\'t with them. \"Darien, where did Kolt go?\"

Everybody looked around and saw Kolt arguing with a guy that they had never seen before.

\"She\'s a fraud! You know it! I just have to prove it yet!\" was heard to be yelled from where Kolt and the other guy was.

\"You wish! You\'re still mad because of the time that she made you look like the ass you are, Bowden!\"

\"The two of you are going to look like asses when I prove that her magic is fake!\"

\"I think that you need to move on to your next victim! If Billie was a fake, she would have been found out long ago! Better people then you have tried to figure out how she does it and have failed.\" Kolt\'s voice wasn\'t getting any louder, but it grew more dangerous. \"You can\'t learn how to do her magic...she\'s not you\'re typical magician...\"

\"So, you are starting to see it my way!\"

\"That\'s not what I said, and you know it!\"

Bowden got close and put his face closer to Kolt\'s even though he was a good six inches shorter than Kolt\'s six feet. \"The only real illusion that there is here, is her!\"

Kolt took a step back away from the man in front of him, and Bowden just stepped, in close again.

Serena could see Kolt\'s fist flex. She then heard Lita say, \"Darien, we need to get in there before
they start fighting!\"

\"Right! You get Kolt, I\'ll get the other guy!\"

The two friends rushed forward and when Kolt took another step back, they stepped in the middle. Lita pushed Kolt away lightly, he was willing to step away.

Darien had a more difficult time, however. Bowden didn\'t want to give up. He pushed back against Darien, but Darien wouldn\'t be budged.

\"Back off mister! I don\'t know what your problem is, but I can see that you\'re pushing when you
shouldn\'t be.\"

\"You\'re the other gut that she thanked tonight, aren\'t you?\"

\"Yeah, what of it?\"

Looking over at Kolt, Bowden said, \"Better watch your woman, Kolt! She\'s turning into a real slut!\" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he felt the pain of Darien\'s fist in the side of his face.

Darien was as surprised as everybody else was that he had struck Bowden. Something inside of him told him that he needed to defend the honor of the woman that he just met earlier that day. He hadn\'t felt a need to protect anybody like that since he first found out that he was Tuxedo Mask and helped Sailor Moon fight the Negaverse and Queen Beryl, three years previous.

Bowden backed away from Darien, holding his cheek, his eyes wide in surprise, then showed a burning rage. He took a step forward and got into Darien\'s face as best he could. Darien stood an inch over Kolt and Bowden was stretched ro his limit to get as close to Kolt\'s face as he did. \"You are going to regret ever hitting me,\" Bowden ground out through clenched teeth.

Nobody had noticed that Billie had come into the room just before Darien had hit Bowden. \"From the looks of things,\" she now said, \"he is only going to regret not hitting you harder.\" She stepped up beside the two men and looked Bowden in the eye, even she was taller than Bowden at five foot nine inches. \"Now I believe you were asked a few weeks ago to stop harassing me. I suggest that you do it before I file a complaint with the authorities and have at least a restraining order placed on your sorry fucking ass! But I think that with your history, they may find their way to giving you jail time!\"

Bowden huffed, then turned and walked towards the exit. After getting about a third of the way
there, he turned and said, \"You haven\'t seen the last of me yet!\"

\"I\'d better have! Next time I see you in any way involved in my life, I\'ll contact the authorities and maybe even file a lawsuit of my own against the magazine you work for. Now, don\'t let me see you near me or any of my friends again!\"

Bowden turned a deep shade of crimson from anger, then headed back towards the exit and disappeared down the stairs.

Darien flexed his fist a bit as if to work out the stiffness and pain that he should have felt after punching somebody. With his other hand, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket and used speed dial to call Andrew on the phone downstairs. \"Andrew, there\'s one more coming down the front stairs now...What?...No, he\'s the last...He was just trying to start something with Kolt about Billie...Something about her magic, I\'m surprised that you didn\'t hear them...I\'m not sure...All I know is that he answers to Bowden...No, nothing serious, he took the worst of it...How much longer until you\'re done?...OK then, see you in a few...Bye.\" He folded up his phone and put it back in his pocket. He looked at the others, \"Andrew will be up in a few minutes.\"

\"And when he gets here, he\'s gonna have a few questions,\" Kolt stated.

\"No doubt,\" Billie said.

Ami, Rei, Lita, and Mina then took a good look at Billie. They gasped. Serena looked at them at
the sound and then looked to see what they were looking at.

Dressed in snug black jeans, a black tank top and an open white dress shirt, Billie looked more relaxed than she had in the evening gown she had on earlier. Her being more at ease made it easier to see the similarities between her and Darien.

While not being as tall as Darien, Billie was still tall, a couple of inches taller than Lita. They both had blue eyes, black hair, and the rest of their faces looked a lot alike too, Billie\'s was more feminine and had a few more years added to it.

Mina thought back to the show and the dress that Billie had worn. She couldn\'t help but make Billie a few inches taller and turn her into Darien. The image seemed so silly to her, she couldn\'t help but giggle. The others looked at her questioningly. She just shook her head, \"Nothing, don\'t mind me.\" I\'ll have to remember to tell Lita later about the thought that we never need to wonder what Darien would look like in a dress, she thought to herself.

Billie also had the opportunity to get a good look at the other girls and could tell who was who by what Andrew had told them of each of them.

The first girl that she looked at had long black hair, purplish-blue eyes. She must be Rei, the temple\'s future priestess.

The next girl in line had short blue hair and blue eyes. The brain, Ami, the future doctor.

Next came the long haired blonde with blue eyes. The volleyball playing Mina, the next superstar!

Last, but not least, was the tall girl with her brunette hair tied back in a high ponytail. Lita, the master chef.

As Billie looked at each of the girls, she had the felling that, long ago she knew these girls too.

Rei had a similar feeling tickling the back of her head but was ready to pass it off as deja vu, until
she remembered the tale that Billie told earlier that evening.

Kolt walked over to Billie and wrapped her up into a hug, \"Tonight\'s show was your best for that act yet! Billie, you did great!\" He gave her a lingering kiss on the nape of her neck, and they could both feel a stirring, deep down in their bodies.

Billie pushed him back and blushed. \"Not now!\" she ground through her teeth so only he could hear her. He chuckled at her.

\"How can you be so calm after that!?\" Lita asked Billie, pointing in the direction of the stairs. Then she noticed that Kolt was a lot calmer now too. They seem to calm each other down, kinda like Serena and Darien, she thought to herself.

That\'s when Andrew decided to show up. \"What happened up here? Who hit that guy and why?\" he asked.

They all looked to each other, silently asked who was going to tell him. Finally Kolt realized that only he could tell how everything started.

\"That guy\'s name is Bowden Black. He\'s a reporter for a magazine that likes to reveal how a magician does his or her signature trick. Since Billie\'s known for her illusions and they can\'t figure out how she does it, that asshole is trying to prove that she is a fraud.\"

Serena then stepped in and spoke up. \"He was trying to pressure Kolt into a fight, but Kolt kept trying to step away, and Bowden wouldn\'t let him be. Lita and Darien stepped in and separated them.\"

Kolt continued from there, \"Bowden then got into Darien\'s face. He made a crude comment about Billie, and Darien hit him.\" Kolt was a bit embarrassed because it was Darien who had defended Billie\'s honor. He couldn\'t get there, Lita was then restraining him until they realized that Darien had struck him. Andrew had told hin the she was strong and a martial artist as well as a cook, but he didn\'t think that Andrew knew just how strong she was.

\"Then I spoke up and told him that if I see him anywhere near me, my show, or my friends again,
that I would call the police and have a restraining order placed against him,\" Billie said. \"The only
thing is that I know that he thinks that was just a threat, but it most definitely was a promise.\"

Billie squeezed Kolt in her hug and then turned to look at Darien and Lita in turn, \"Thank you for
your help with him, both of you.\"

Darien answered for both of them, \"No problem.\" Then he looked to Kolt, \"Why he was in your face anyway?\"

\"He was trying to get me to say that Billie is a fraud. He started out trying to figure out how Billie does her tricks, but when he couldn\'t, he decided to run her name through the dirt and trying to mark her as a fake. The credible magicians won\'t normally risk having anything to do with you once you are named a fraud, but Billie has worked with enough of them that they won\'t believe anything that was said like that about her. They have seen her prepare for a show and know that what she does is true magic and can\'t be copied, and anybody that says that they can are themselves more than likely a fake.\"

\"True magic?\" Rei asked. \"Nothing like witches, spells, and devils is it?\"

Billie looked at her puzzled at the question. Then remembering that it was the temple priestess that asked it, understood. She really is on the watch for evil at all times, isn\'t she. Just like a priestess should, Billie thought. \"Rei did you feel any evil in my magic?\"

Rei looked at her, shocked. \"How did you know who I am?\"

\"Andrew told us about each of you,\" Kolt said. The four girls looked to Andrew and he nodded.

\"Anyway,\" Billie said, \"to answer your questions about my magic. Witch? No. Spells? Sort of. Devils? definitely not!\"

\"What do you mean by \'Spells? Sort of.\'?\" Ami asked.

\"I use spells, but they are done by incantation and meditation, not by potions and herbs.\"

\"You mean that you did tonight\'s show by incantation! All of it?\" Mina asked.

\"Yeah, sort of.\"

\"How could you do that?\" Serena asked. \"You were telling the story as the images appeared! Isn\'t it impossible to do both at once?\"

\"Not if she recorded the story onto the music soundtrack,\" Ami stated. \"Her lips moving could have been a mantra that is sometimes used during meditations.\"

\"But it\'s not. Everything is as it was during the show back there,\" Billie said pointing to the doors to the kitchen. \"You can check out the equipment if you want. Nothing was touched since the show began, except the power button.\" Ami didn\'t look convinced. \"I swear on....\" she looked at Kolt for a second then said, \"...my love for Kolt!\"

Andrew knew the depth of the feeling between Kolt and Billie, they ran as deep as those between
Darien and Serena. \"Trust her, Ami. If she\'s swearing on that, it\'s definitely not a lie,\" he said.

Kolt looked at Billie in surprise, then hugged her tightly, smiling. As he released her he said, \"You always find new way to show your love for me!\" Kolt gave her a goofy grin and everybody laughed.

Everybody in the room could see the love the two had for each other. It seemed to rival that of Serena and Darien. The four other girls thought that they would never witness another love like that in any lifetime.

Darien and Andrew are good judges of character. Andrew has known her the longest and he seems to believe that her magic is real. Darien seems to believe her too, besides he did help set up some of the equipment, Ami thought. Then she decided to give Billie the benefit of the doubt, for now. \"Then how do you do it?\" she asked, ever the scientific mind.

\"This is the part that makes it seem so unreal and hard to believe,\" Kolt muttered under his breath,
loud enough for all to just hear him. Billie glared at him for a quick moment.

\"I\'ve practised an illusion enough, before I use it in a show, that I don\'t need to use an incantation
during the show. I meditate before the show and prepare the illusions in my mind so that when I
need them, they are ready.\"

\'She\'s a mage!\' Rei heard the little voice in her head say. The voice that everybody has, but can\'t
all hear.