Princess Chronos could not sleep.

It was strange, really, seeing that she had lived in deep space all her life, and was used to how quiet it could get sometimes, or how noisy it could sound as there was a battle ongoing between the Zodiacs and the Chaos monsters. She was used to Zue sleeping in her room, sometimes cuddling him as she slept; he protested that sometimes she squeezed him a little too hard in her sleep and then went on to ask worriedly if she had experienced a nightmare. She was used to the sheer darkness of it all, save for the few stars in the distance she could see from her window. And yet, tonight, which seemed like every other normal night, the young Princess was still awake in her bed, despite her efforts to lull herself to sleep. Perhaps it was because her mother hadn’t come to tuck her in and kiss her on the forehead, or even read her some stories to fall asleep, but she wasn’t a kid anymore! She was ten, going on eleven, and Chronos knew sensibly that she could not demand any more duties of the busy Queen of the Zodiacs. Zue was already asleep, curled up besides her shoulder as she attempted to count Zodiacs; it was like counting sheep, but not really. It involved chanting the names of the Zodiacs over and over until she got bored and fell asleep. Usually it worked, but tonight, it didn’t seem to be. Come on, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo...

“It’s not my fault!” The voice of the Zodiac whose name she had just murmured rang out from the corridor, sounding aggravated and tired. It seemed as though the Zodiacs were back from the Chaos monster invasion which her mother had been alerted to during dinner and thus immediately left, not even finishing her soup. It was okay though; she had taken the soup to the kitchen and told them to warm it up for her mother when she returned.

“Hush.” She heard, as she left her bed as quietly as she could to ensure that Zue would not awaken, and tiptoed towards the door. “The Princess is sleeping.” At this request, there wasn’t many voices after that, although she could hear the shuffling of feet, the clang of the metal armour as the Zodiacs moved. When it seemed as though the coast was clear, Chronos reached for the door handle and pulled it down gently, cracking the door open slightly for her to slide through, making sure the light from the hallway would not fall on the sleeping Guardian Cat, who only moved slightly in his sleep as she closed the door.

The Princess wandered the now empty hallway, wondering where the Zodiacs and her mother had gone. The first thought that came to her was the conference room, and she made her way there only to halt in her steps when there were steps in the distance. Immediately, Princess Chronos ducked behind one of the nearby potted plants, which leaves were large enough to hide her small frame from the servants who passed her without noticing that she was there. She, on the other hand, noted the bandages and medication they were carrying on trays and followed them as stealthily as she could, taking care not to step on the lines between the tiles; that would just take away her invisibility. When she had established that they were heading into the royal chambers, also known as her mother’s room, and shut the door firmly behind them, Chronos sighed and paced outside the door as she tried to think of a way to...

The Zodiac castle had many secret underground passages that she had explored while she was bored, some even being discovered by accident on her own. There were also some that connected one room to another, and Chronos knew one that went from her room to her mother’s, which she had sometimes used to sleep in her mother’s bed and wait for the Queen to return from a battle. There was a grin on her face as she made up her mind and whirled around to head back to her room.

Re-entering her room was another stealthy venture; if Zue cracked open an eyelid to see her tiptoeing back into her room, she would be in for a lecture. There was no ‘I wanted to use the bathroom’ excuse that she could use, for there already was one connected to her room. Luckily, her door wasn’t one that would creak, and Zue was still thankfully, fast asleep as she peered at him for a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t faking. Who knew when he would suddenly awaken and glare at her and go on about ‘her leaving without his supervision’? When she was confident that he was not going to wake up anytime soon, the Princess headed towards the secret passageway, which led her right into the Queen’s closet.

The closet door was much easier to eavesdrop on conversations than the main door to the bedroom, Chronos learned. Pressing her ear to the doorframe, she could distinctly hear arguing voices who consisted of the loud, authoritative tone that Aries usually employed as he talked, and Taurus’ deep, quiet yet audibly frustrated voice countering what Aries had said.

“If your team wasn’t so late, perhaps the Queen wouldn’t be...”

“You know we had another Chaos monster to fight off in the other sector.” Taurus had cut in shortly, and Chronos could almost imagine Aries’ glare towards him; Aries had never liked being interrupted. He took his duties as the captain Very Seriously. “You had Cancer to protect the Queen; it took Pisces quite a bit to distract it with one of her illusions so that we could properly deal some damage to it.”

“I told you over the communicator that I needed more defence for backup! You had two ******** teams with you, Taurus, and you could not even ******** spare...”

“Virgo was protecting Pisces; if Pisces got hit, her illusion would...”

Both would have presumably gone on arguing, clenching fists as they continued their hot debate, if it hadn’t been for the Queen’s smooth voice interrupting. Luckily, it wasn’t Aries getting interrupted now, but the Queen was probably the only one he could tolerate interrupting her. “Hush.” She said, and the two obeyed. “It is inevitable that we will suffer battle wounds in our duty. Virgo suffers enough.”

“But, if I had gotten there earlier...” Virgo started out worryingly but stopped, and the princess in hiding could only guess that her mother had silenced her with either a look or a gesture.

“We are getting old.” Aries said stoutly in the middle of the bout of silence. It sounded as though he had to force himself to grudgingly spit out those words. “Your Highness, I think it’s time.” Then as silence continued as the Zodiacs stood in shock and confusion at their Captain’s words, he added. “For the funerals.”

The funerals. The Princess knew exactly what this meant. Besides exploring the castle, she had princess duties too, such as studying, getting taught self defence, having Zue tell her his recounts on what the job of the Zodiacs were like. “The funerals,” Zue had said when in the library in a solemn tone, as he was seated atop a pile of books, “are for when the Zodiacs leave their home planet and are sent here to the Zodiac castle. And then, when they’re all gathered, the wedding ceremony is held and they all have rings; you’ve seen them on the Zodiacs...” At that time, he was interrupted when Flora thought it was hilarious to drop a pair of spectacles on the guardian cat in an attempt, she giggled, to make him seem smarter as he was preaching. She did remember the rings of course, which were rather plain wedding bands, save for the zodiac signs carved on their surface, which clung to their ring finger.

“They are just children, Aries...” The Queen began, but the Captain was apparently irritated enough by their previous fight to actually interrupt her mother. “I know you think they should have a normal childhood. But they are not normal. They are Zodiacs. They are Chosen to Hold The Line.” Then after expelling a frustrated breath of air, he added, his voice a tad bit gentler, as if he had just remembered that he was addressing his Queen. “The Princess needs to get ready as well.”

“Don’t you think,” Capricorn suddenly spoke up, “that the Princess herself needs to be consulted about this?” Princess Chronos jumped and before she could scramble back into the tunnel or even hide herself, the closet door was pulled open by the Soldier of Secrets, revealing her presence there. All she could do was smoothen the wrinkles in her nightgown and plaster a sheepish smile on her face as the Zodiacs, who looked pretty beaten up, especially Virgo, stared at her in muted shock. It took a moment before Aries gave her a stiff bow, and as the others followed suit, and held out his hand to her. She took it, and he led her to where her mother was seated primly on the edge of her bed.

Chronos could see why Aries seems so furious. Her mother had bruises on her, cuts even, wounds that oozed pus, and even as she had seen enough of these sort of injuries, ‘battle wounds’ as her mother had called them earlier, it didn’t make her feel less upset to see her own mother, the Queen, getting hurt. She climbed atop the bed and sat on her knees, dabbing the cotton in the ointment that was on the tray, tending to her mother’s injuries quietly.

There was an awkward sort of air in the room as the Zodiacs fell quiet once again, and Aries cleared his throat. “Well, what do you think, Princess?”

Chronos froze, and her head turned to look up at the large muscular Captain of the Zodiacs. “I have been learning.” She said slowly, fiddling with the cotton with her fingers. “About my duties and being taught how to fight...”

“Thus the Zodiacs need to.” Aries said firmly in response, but his eyes were trained on her mother instead. “They are teenagers. They need to train under us.”

“We would definitely be on top.” Gemini Alpha broke in, and both Gemini Soldiers laughed while the others winced; Chronos had no idea what was so funny, and only fixed them with a peculiar stare.

“You do not play checkers with your successors.” Aries hissed at them sharply, glaring daggers at the two before turning back to the Queen. “They may have been trained on their home planet, but whoever is training them has never Held The Line. Never known the threat of Chaos Monsters. Never known how to strategize, to work together, and they need to be taught. Now.”

“You will not rest until I agree, will you?” The Queen sighed resignedly. “But you are right, Aries. Perhaps it is time, after all.” As she said this, her hand found her daughter’s head and she stroked her hair tenderly. “It is their duty after all.”

“Nice.” Gemini chorused in unison. “Shall we contact Mercury then, our great Captain?”

“You’d probably flirt with the Mercury maids.” Aries snapped. “Virgo will do it...”

“But Captain, poor Virgo suffers battle wounds!” Alpha said, with a pout, which Beta followed with, and then continued. “Thou must understand that she needest her rest and we needest to contact the Planets for them to get ready...”

“Very well.” Aries groused, rolling his eyes as the two Soldiers pumped their fists in the air in victory. “Virgo, go have the servants tend to your wounds.”

“I’ll contact the Moon about Cancer.” The Queen spoke up, and before they could protest that she too, should tend to her wounds and rest, she continued firmly. “I would like to talk with Queen Serenity myself.”

“Can I see Cousin Serenity then?” The Princess asked with wide expectant eyes. “Just for a bit, I promise! After you talk to Aunt Serenity about Cancer; I’ll be very very patient and wait as you two converse.”

“Alright.” The Queen conceded with a fond smile on her face, and Aries busied himself with assigning the other Zodiacs to contact their home planet. One by one, the Zodiacs left until only Aries himself was left, and he bowed to both the Queen and the Princess before leaving the room.

“I’ll contact the Moon tomorrow.” The Queen said as she stifled a yawn, leaning back into the soft pillows of her bed. “You should get some rest too...” She trailed off as she realized that the young Princess’ head was on her lap, and was peacefully asleep. A kiss was deposited upon her daughter’s forehead, and that night, the two slept together.

Early next morning, they were roused from their sleep by a loud yowl and frantic shouts that the Princess had been kidnapped the night before. Zue, long purple hair all mussed as he ran about in human form searching for the ‘missing’ Princess and alerting the servants to this disappearance, glared as Princess Chronos emerged from her mother’s royal chambers, bleary eyed and clearly not missing, like he had earlier proclaimed.

That day, Princess Chronos was treated to a lecture before she could sit in on the Queen contacting the Moon.