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"What, Luna? You mean you don't remember him?"
"Remember him?" Luna asked, totally confused. "Should I remember him? Was he from the Moon Kingdom?"
"You could say that. He's my twin brother, Prince Tranquillity!"
"WWHHHAAAATTTTTT?" Luna screeched.
Travis turned to Serena, "She can howl louder than you on occasion, can't she?" Serena laughed even as she hit him. "I take it you don't remember him?" she asked Luna.
"No, I don't remember him! If this is some joke..." Luna didn't know what to think. For once Serena was taking news calmly while 'she' was wailing her head off. Luna tried to get herself under control.
"I'm not really surprised you don't remember me," Travis put in soothingly, "I wasn't around much."
"I know." Serena pouted, "and I hated it."
"Here, let's sit down, and I'll tell you what I remember, Serena can then tell what she remembers and we'll see if anything sparks your memory, okay?" Travis led them over to the couch and the three sat down with Luna on Serena's lap. Travis began.
"Our parent's marriage was not a love match. It was simply a political marriage for both of them."
Serena interupted, "That's one reason Mother was so determined that I would marry for love."
"Serena, do you want to tell this?" Travis asked sternly. "Sorry." "As I was saying, our parents marriage was a political one. It was made solely to ally the Kingdom of the Moon and the Kingdom of the Sun. In case you haven't figured it out yet, our father was the King of the Sun. Part of the alliance concerned the children, the first born daughter would become the heir to the Moon and the first born son would be heir to the Sun."
Serena interrupted again. "Luna, could Mother have planned it so she would have twins? I mean, could she have used the Crystal to make sure of it?"
"I think it's possible, Serena," Luna said impatiently, "but would you please be quiet. I think I'm remembering some of this and I would like to hear the rest."
Travis waited until all talking had ceased before he continued. "It was thought best that we stay with Mother the first few years. I hear that we were inseperable during those years. Then we turned five." Travis grew silent and after waiting a few seconds Serena continued.
"When we turned five, it was decided that we were old enough to start learning about our kingdoms. Tranq had to go to the Sun. We only got to see each other about twice a year. When we did get to see each other, we spent all our time together." Serena grew silent as well, trying to remember times that were still misty.
"I remember," Luna said quietly. Her mind, too, was caught in the past. "I remember when you were born. The entire kingdom rejoiced. When you were shown to the people for the first time, everyone thought the Queen had been blessed with a pair of angels, you were so good. They didn't know you very well."
"Hey!" Serena cried out, surprised from her thoughts by what Luna had just said. "What do you mean by that? For that you can sit on the floor." And Serena unceremoniously dumped Luna from her lap.
Travis laughed as Luna managed to twist herself to land on her feet. Then he calmed down. "What 'did' you mean by that, Luna? Maybe it came out wrong?"
Luna washed herself for a few minutes before she decided to start talking again. "You two were total terrors." Luna said suddenly. "Especially that first night."
"What did we do?" Serena asked, interested.
"You cried." Luna said bluntly. "We tried feeding you, you cried. We tried rocking you and walking you, you cried. We tried changing you, you cried. We brought in a doctor because you cried so much.
Normally, a newborn baby only cries when hungry, wet, or wanting attention. You two just cried. We decided to leave you alone, you cried. Nothing we could do would make you stop crying. We were going out of our minds, sure that something was wrong with you."
"So what happened?" Serena and Travis asked breathlessly when Luna stopped.
"The noise just stopped suddenly. We all rushed in to see what had happened. The nurse had been rocking one of you, I think it was you, Tranquillity, and accidently put you down in the wrong cradle. Your crying had made us all so crazy that it's not surprising she didn't even notice the cradle was already occupied. When we got in there she was just looking down into a cradle that had two sleeping babies in it. We thought you two had finally gotten tired of crying and went to sleep. So your mother picked up Tranquillity to put him back in his cradle. You both woke up and started crying, even though you'd definately been asleep the moment before. She put him back down, you were both asleep, lift him up and you were awake and crying. That's the first time we got a hint of it."
"A hint of what?" Serena and Travis asked simultaneously. "You two would 'not' be separated. You would be the sweetest children in the world while together, but try to separate you and you almost went berserk." Luna looked disgusted.
Travis didn't look too happy either. "I cried! I can't believe I couldn't find another way to make my displeasure known."
"Oh, you did! After you were two or so, 'you' started the silent treatment. You would just sit there, not say anything, and do absolutely nothing. It was so frustrating!" Luna sounded like she was still frustrated about it 1000 years later.
"How could you separate us, then?" Serena asked softly, holding on to Travis's arm as if someone was trying to separate them now.
"We didn't have a choice." Luna said just as softly. "It could have provoked an interstellar incident if we didn't. Tranquillity wasn't even supposed to stay until he was five.
The alliance between the two kingdoms had been a necessity, there was bad blood between the Moon and the Sun. Your birth had stopped some of that, but when Tranquillity didn't come to the Sun, rumors started going around that Queen Serenity was holding him hostage, to ensure good behavior. He had to go. Though come to think of it, a war would probably been a lot more fun than those next two months."
Travis decided to break up the solemn atmosphere. "What I would like to know, is who got the bright idea to name twins Serenity and Tranquillity? Do you have any idea how often I got teased about that stupid name? I would love to be alone with that person for just five minutes."
Luna looked away guiltily, blushing slightly. Travis had turned to share a laugh with Serena so he didn't notice. Unfortunately for Luna, for once Serena was sensitive enough to notice and looking the right way. "Luna! You didn't!" Serena said, shocked.
Travis turned to glare at Luna. "It was 'your' idea?" he asked in disbelief.
"I didn't mean it seriously," she exclaimed, backing away. "Serenity's name had already been decided, all queens of the moon were named Serenity, but there wasn't an inherited name for the sun and no one could decide what to call you. Then you were born and we had to come up with a name quickly.
I was just joking with the queen, trying to keep her spirits up and I said that it would be cute if you were named Tranquillity, it went so well with Serenity and it was the name of a sea on the moon. How was I to know she would take me seriously and really name you that?" Luna was backing away even as she babbled.
Travis was coming after her and he looked very annoyed. It looked as though fifteen years of being teased over his name had finally come to the forefront as he went after the cause of his misfortune. "Besides," Luna said, "Apollo agreed to it and he had the last say since he was your father's representative at the court and was to be your guardian." Luna's voice slowed down as she listened to what she had just said.
"Apollo?" Travis and Serena said in stereo. Serena still looked a little bemused, but Travis looked like he had gotten a revelation. He ran outside with Serena on his heels.
"You don't honestly think its him, do you?" Serena gasped as she followed after him. "What are the chances that my guardian would have a golden falcon named Apollo, who 'didn't' have anything to do with me?" Travis said as he hit the steps, his eyes scanning the skies. He turned around at the "oof". Serena was sitting on the steps and rubbing her buttocks as she slowly got up. "Are you alright?" Travis asked, concerned.
"Yeah, yeah, just another klutz attack. But didn't Apollo have the symbol of the Sun on his forehead, like Luna has the crescent Moon? And I don't remember seeing one on 'this' Apollo."
Travis and Luna both looked at Serena in surprise. They had both expected her signature wail at the fall, not a calm continuation of the conversation.
When she didn't get an answer to her question, Serena looked up to catch the two of them staring at her. "What?" she snapped. She got even more annoyed
when they looked at each other, shrugged and said "Nothing" in exactly the same tone of voice.
"Maybe he was reborn like us, instead of being put in a stasis capsule like the cats. We'll never know until we ask. Come on." Travis started out into the yard.
He whistled, loud and long, and waited. The falcon flew straight out of the rising sun. Travis punched his fist up into the air. *When Uncle Darien first showed me Apollo, I did this, and Apollo was going to land, but Uncle Darien said that it was the wrong way to do it. He was right. If this isn't 'my' Apollo, this is going to hurt.* But the falcon landed gently on the upraised fist, mantled his wings, and stayed in place as Travis lowered his arm to look him in the eye.
Luna was back in Serena's arms and looking nervously at the large predator in front of her. "Serena was right, he doesn't have the sun symbol, I don't think it's him." Serena and Luna looked at Travis to gauge his reaction to that statement. They were very surprised at the reaction they got.
"You always were quick to jump to conclusions, Luna." Everyone's head whipped up as they looked at each other in shock. The voice had 'not' come from one of them.
They turned to look at Apollo. He looked back at them with his beak slightlyopen, in the closest thing to a grin any of them could imagine on a falcon's face.
"It is you!" Travis said happily.
"It's nice to see you again, too, Travis." The falcon said in a slightly grating voice. "At least you know me this time. And as for why I don't have the sun symbol on my forehead?.
I just learned to hide it." As Apollo said this his forehead started to glow and the symbol of the sun was suddenly glowing there. Serena looked at Travis and stared. The sun symbol was shining on his forehead as well!
Serena was about to remark on this when she suddenly glanced at the real sun."Travis? What time is it?"
Travis looked at his watch. "It's seven forty-five. We're going to be late!" The two of them tore back inside, leaving Luna and Apollo staring after them. They looked at each other for a long moment, then in complete agreement said one word. "Teenagers!"
Miss Haruna had only one word for them when they came in ten minutes late to class. "Detention."
That afternoon at detention "You know," Serena said, "I'm not sure if even finding out about you makes this day worthwhile." "I know what you mean." Travis agreed, "Late for school, didn't eat breakfast, didn't bring lunch, have detention."
"And no one seems to be talking to me." Serena finished for him. "Amy and Lita were acting like I was carrying the plague or something. I didn't even get a chance to tell them about us."
"Probably because you were trying to eat their lunch." Travis said, laughing. "Well if we're stuck here, we might as well get some work done." They pulled out their school books and started working on their homework.
Miss Haruna looked in on them a couple of times, only to see them working diligently. She shook her head as she walked away. When Serena had come in late this morning, she was sure that everything was back to normal. It seemed this was not so.
When Travis finished his homework, he looked over at Serena. She had a look of extreme concentration on her face as she worked a problem. He took her math homework and started looking it over. When Serena finally finished he pointed out a couple of mistakes she had made and she fixed them.
"Serena," Travis asked, "when is your birthday?"
"Nineteen days from today," Serena answered without even stopping to think. She had been keeping track. "Why, you going to get me a present?"
"In other words, two weeks from Saturday, right?" Serena nodded. "The same day as mine." "Is that so surprising?" Serena asked, puzzled, "We are twins after all."
"We 'were' twins, Serena. The question is, are we still twins." Serena now looked extremely puzzled, he didn't even wait for her to ask. "We are the same age, have the same birthday and are both adopted. Do you think we were born as twins in this reincarnation, as well?"
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