Secrets

Sutaru loved the gardens at the Jedi Temple. Something about the array of different flowers and smells made her feel so serene. She especially liked the garlic blossoms, which she'd had especially brought to Coruscant from Earth. If you broke a garlic blossom leaf, you could honestly smell the well-known garlic scent. Sutaru's was one of the only flowers in the garden that was also edible, if you got the cloves from it.

On this certain day, Sutaru sat on the carved marble bench by the garlic blossom patch, her green journal on her lap. She was just doodling pictures in it, really, but she liked the ambience of the gardens, and she'd had a rude awakening this morning by Chouko's cat, Pinku. Sutaru had decided not to tell Chouko, or anyone, about the Pink Wondercat's antics in the Emerald Un-Morning-Person's room. Right then, Sutaru's thoughts drifted to Raven, her current boyfriend. She smiled as she envisioned his buzzy red hair and bright blue eyes.

Sutaru was oblivious to the boy that sat beside her.

"Hey, Coruscant to Sutaru, you there?" Sutaru shook herself out of her reverie, noticing that none other than Raven himself had sat beside her. She quickly snapped her journal shut and locked it, with the tiny key she kept around her neck.

"Raven! How'd you find me, here of all places?" Sutaru wondered.

"I can always find you!" He winked. "Besides, you're always either here or off with the Senshi on some mission or another."

"Point," Sutaru said, her usual lopsided grin tugging at her left cheek. "No, really, why'd you come looking for me?"

Raven's eyes turned to the ground for a moment, and Sutaru knew he was about to reveal a bit of his past. Raven didn't really like talking about his family history, for two reasons. First was because he'd been taken to the Jedi Temple as a baby, and second that his parents had been killed right before that. He had spent a lot of his extra time looking for traces of his family's name, places it had been written down and such. His eyes locked on Sutaru's again.

"I know who my mother was."

"You do?" Sutaru asked softly, being careful not to set him to tears. For a guy, Sutaru thought, he's pretty emotional. I'd be too, though, if I'd been taken from Mom and Dad when I was that young...

Raven interrupted her thoughts. "She was Omwati. Her name was Xura Rhono Mikahn."

Sutaru's thoughts first flashed to her grandparents' friend Qwi Xux, then to the Omwati senshi Kirana. "She was Omwati? Like Kirana?"

Raven nodded. "I guess the blue-skin-pearly-hair trait didn't make it to me."

"Yeah." Sutaru noticed Raven's eyes brimming with tears and said, "Need a shoulder?"

Raven hugged Sutaru and let his tears flow soundlessly down his cheeks. Sutaru patted his back and smiled a little. Maybe this won't be so bad after all, she thought.

Later, Sutaru and Raven were walking hand-in-hand through the gardens. They ran into Kirana, to their surprise, and Raven retold the story to her. She thought for a moment.

"I think I knew her."

"What?" Raven asked.

"I said, I think I knew her. I don't know exactly how, but I recognize the name."

"You do? That's weird - I thought you were from Earth?" Sutaru stayed silent as Raven asked Kirana this.

Kirana nodded. "I am, but in a past life, I was Princess of Omwat. The name Rhono struck a note there." Kirana closed her eyes, opened her mind. Her fingers went to her temples as she thought through all the memories she'd recovered since she'd found out she was a Sailor Jedi. Her eyes suddenly shot open. "That's it! Rhono was the name of an important dignitary there, probably just a few levels short of me... But what's weird is I remember a lightsaber... a greeny-yellow color..." Kirana trailed off when she saw Raven's face.

Raven had gone pale. "Th-that's the same color as my lightsaber... that I've had since I was a baby... I can't believe it..."

Sutaru cut in. "What, that some of your ancestors were important people?"

"Yeah, and the fact that I had Omwati Jedi ancestors! That's just... sugoi!" He used a Japanese phrase that Yukiko had long since gotten him hooked on saying.

Sutaru giggled at his use of the foreign quip. "Okay, so your ancestors were Jedi, Omwati, and important! That's gotta be very hoth!"

Raven smiled. "Very!"