**Edited: Out of respect for the Takarazuka fandom, I have changed Minako's profession as I am unable to do the theater or its actresses justice. The change should not significantly alter the storyline and many of you may not feel the change worth noting. Thank you for your understanding.
Author's Notes: First and foremost, I do not now, nor have I ever owned Sailor Moon et al. No profit or defamation is intended by this fiction. I'm loathe to give too long an introduction given it's my first chapter and the first fan fiction I've written in years. Still, while this story will revolve around Haruka and Michiru, the story expands well beyond them to the whole of the Silver Millennium cast. Oh, and no "cousins" here. The rating, however, is because of other things (language, adult themes - sex as a weapon, etc.). I don't see homosexuality as being "not family friendly."
Please, read and review.
"I am sorry." The quiet voice cut through the din of battle and reverberated in the chests of the three warriors who were racing past the evidence of war. The long-sleeved suits and cloaks of the fallen contrasted deeply with the short colored skirts and white bodices of the trio still running apparently uninjured. Bodies, some moving and others still, littered the halls of what had once been a glorious palace. Now the white walls were stained with black and red creating a discomforting glow befitting the destruction that had been wrought there.
The tallest of the warriors, dark green-black hair flowing behind her and garnet eyes resigned to their fate, stopped in her tracks. "My queen." The whisper was a plea that she knew would go unheeded. They had failed. They had been called for one purpose only. She closed her eyes. The garnet orb atop her staff glowed as the symbol of Pluto etched itself into her forehead, replacing the tiara that had been present previously. Bodies disappeared before her as she made her way, slower now, to the center temple. The scent of blood assaulted her senses, mirroring the horror of the sounds of distant battle still raging. It was appropriate to end her service where it had begun: the throne room of the Lunar Queen.
From a different corner raced a young woman with hair the color of fresh seaweed. When the voice rang through her chest, she stumbled and shook her head, clutching a gold object to her chest and shaking her head repeatedly. "It can't be. We couldn't have failed. There has to be hope." She eased her crouched stance and looked into her hand mirror, the glassy surface revealed nothing, not even the blood she knew was on the walls behind her. There was no future. The symbol of Neptune shone brightly on her forehead and she rose as if in a trance, making her way to the throne room.
A blond woman with a sword roared with frustration. Betrayed. They hadn't even been given a chance to help, word coming far too late that the Moon Kingdom she had sworn her life to protect was falling to the blue planet it had been charged with guarding. All around her death mocked her service. "I do not accept!" she called out, challenging any of the bodies around to stand up, to rise to confront her. The warrior needing to prove her mettle, to prove her purpose. The symbol of Uranus glowed on her forehead as she marched ahead, white-knuckled grip on her sword beneath the glove on her hand. She felt the queen's words carve out her heart and she would be damned if she didn't find out why from the woman herself.
The throne room had once been the center of all activity on the moon. Serenity had ruled with a just, if sometimes cold hand. There was no doubt she had loved all of her subjects, but there had been a purpose to some, a duty that she would not relieve them of. The goddess-queen had been all-powerful, or so everyone had been led to believe. Or perhaps they had believed it because they wanted it to be true. For the three warriors standing at the obelisk to the Lunar monarchy, the latter had definitely been the case. They had a solitary duty, meeting rarely and never all three together. Staring at each other now, they all gripped their Talismans: sword, jewel and mirror. It was a sight that never should have existed. The image of their queen floated inside the obelisk.
She had called them to their deaths.
"It is time. Call her."
"No!" The blond shook her head. "You called us here just to seal our fates?"
"Uranus!" The shortest of the warriors clutched her mirror.
"She betrayed us. We weren't given the chance to do our duty and now we're called to end our lives because she," at this she pointed to the obelisk with her sword, "didn't call us here early enough to prevent this?"
"I failed my daughter." All three tensed further, muscles rigid with the realization that the young princess to whom they had happily knelt was somewhere among the dead. "Now, I must ask you to do that which you have sworn you would do. Call upon the Soldier of Destruction. Only she can stop this."
The Soldier of Destruction. The Moon Kingdom had fallen and now there was nothing left to do but finish the job. End the war and all traces of the once vast empire.
"Neptune." The blond and teal haired warriors exchanged a longing glance, hands moving briefly as if to reach out to each other before falling to their sides as they both nodded. The figure in the obelisk continued, the life force of the queen fading, losing the ability to project itself to them.
"The next wave is arriving and they cannot gain control of the Silver Crystal. You must summon her." With that, the palace shook and the image faded.
"For the princess," Uranus stated flatly, holding out her sword as it began gleaming. "I am sorry I failed you. I lay down my life for my mistakes."
Neptune nodded and held out her mirror. "Forgive us, Princess. We should have seen; we should have been here."
The final warrior closed her eyes briefly before holding out her staff, the garnet orb glowing brighter as the three Talismans resonated with each other, the light threatening to overtake all three soldiers. "May we meet again, Princess."
As the light faded, a young girl stood holding a glaive twice as tall as she was. The three soldiers fell to their knees at the sight, despair winning over their bravado. Her purple hair whipped in a wind none of the others felt. Stillness settled in the throne room.
"Uranus, Neptune, Pluto." Her soft words echoed in the chamber. "We shall be needed again. The queen preserved the star seeds of her daughter and the guardian senshi. Through vows of service, yours and mine, we will be reincarnated as well."
Uranus's face shot up, past the girl who spoke to the empty crystal pillar behind her. "You would have let us perish?"
The question went unanswered as Neptune looked over with sadness at the blond. They hadn't been called because Serenity had known they would fall. They were reserved for this. She had saved her daughter and her closest friends, but the soldiers of the Outer Solar System had been left to their own devices, their own fates. Now it would be up to their own powers, their Talismans and vows of service to find their princess, wherever and whenever she would be reborn.
The three exchanged a nod before holding their Talismans up as Saturn brought her glaive down, bringing silence and death to all within reach of the moon. Four bodies glowed briefly before disappearing, leaving no uniforms or weapons behind.
##
"Michiru-kun, you can't be serious."
The aqua-haired girl shook her head, hands clasped gently but deliberately before her. "I'm very sorry, Yamamoto-sensei. I am honored but I must turn down the offer. I wish to teach." The room fell silent. For long moments, the girl stared down at her hands, trying to keep them from shaking. Digging the tips of her fingers into her palm, her nails were still too short to leave the cathartic purple half-moons she craved. At least her white knuckles were hidden by the height of the desk in front of her.
Yamamoto Suichi had been teaching violin for forty years. In all that time, Michiru knew she was probably the only who had shown half the promise they said she did and uttered those words. Resisting the urge to bite her lip, she wondered if perhaps she was to blame for the few streaks of silver he now sported. He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in a rare external expression of frustration. He didn't have to speak for Michiru to know his thoughts. They would be the same she'd thought over and over for the past week as she'd debated her decision. An up and coming musician who already had an internet following and had performed in local venues should have been aimed for a national tour. Yet, here she was insisting that she no longer desired to travel. That teaching had taken precedence over her professed dreams of becoming a professional violinist. No doubt someone would say she was honoring him by following his example. She hoped. Except he had been a professional performer, two generations ago.
"Is there a man I am not aware of?" he asked, looking over his hand.
She paled slightly followed by an awkward blush at the suggestion. The question wasn't one she'd anticipated. Nowhere in her fantasies had she been married. She hadn't found a man, didn't want a man. Still, her teacher had been close to the mark. Someone was keeping her in Tokyo, the question was who. The thought that her someone might not be a man both seemed perfectly natural and paralyzingly frightening at the same time."No, Sensei. I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done for me, but with each passing day, I find the desire growing to help young violinists. I can't explain it any other way. I want to serve not only as an inspiration but in a more immediate capacity. As you have with me." She hoped the explanation would sound more convincing to him than to her own ears.
The truth of her desire she couldn't name. In part because she herself didn't understand it. She had been dreaming of being a professional violinist for years. However, whenever she tried to leave Tokyo, she was always pulled back. Over the past several months, the pull had been even stronger, the dreams more vivid and more desperate.
The two occupants of the room remained as they were for long seconds. The older man sitting at his desk, pinching his nose. The young woman sitting on the edge of her own chair, hands clasped and back straight. Finally, he nodded. "I don't like it. I think you are making a mistake, but I cannot force you to do what you will not do."
Michiru nodded. She hadn't wanted to leave her career. It had been her dream, but now that dream was changing and she had to find out why. "Thank you, Sensei."
He waved her thanks away. "Thank me by turning out performers good enough to take your place."
She smiled, knowing that his gruff words were the only way he could give her his blessing. "I will, Sensei. Thank you." She stood to leave. "I am still willing to give local concerts, but—"
He held up his hand. "I think it best if you limit performances to charities and your internet fans. There is no reason to tease your following with promises you do not intend to keep."
Michiru nodded quietly, then bowed as she left. Kaioh Michiru, the professional violinist, had just ended her performance career before it had a chance to really begin on no more substance than dreams and half-remembered fantasies. The two figures dominating both were nearly polar opposites yet both had been haunting her dreams and her waking hours for months. She needed to find them and Tokyo was how she could find both.
Once outside, she picked up her phone and dialed a number she had memorized long ago. Her fingers tapped out the number faster than it would have taken to locate the girl in her favorites. When the voicemail picked up, she steeled herself. The traffic passed her by as she waited for the message to end. "Ami-chan, it's Michiru. If you are still looking for a roommate, I am in need of a place to stay." She clicked her phone off and slipped it into her purse.
"Wait for me," she breathed into the wind as she exited the building. "I'm coming."
##
There were few pleasures in life that Haruka Tenoh enjoyed more than watching pretty girls. She surrounded herself with them. They were a means to an end, most of them. The one on stage currently was one of the exceptions. She'd met Minako by accident years ago. The girl had mistaken her for someone else at an arcade. Haruka had been all too happy to oblige in treating the girl like a lady and Minako had been to eager to be treated as one. She'd been in high school and in the middle of national track competitions at the time. Minako had been in junior high and just been denied an audition with the Takarazuka Music School. At first Aino Minako had been just another pretty face to flirt with. However, as the years passed, she turned out to be a beloved friend and trusted confidante as well as Haruka's self-proclaimed girlfriend.
A smirk worthy of the playboy reputation she had graced Haruka's face. Neither of them were precisely where they thought they'd be now. Her dream of being a Formula 1 racer seemed unattainable, despite the great strides she'd taken. Still, she'd made a name for herself in motocross and she was entering the world of professional car racing. Minako was no pop idol, but she was a regular in the musical theater scene. The current musical was her first as a lead, an accident of fate leaving the originator of the role sick in the hospital and Minako the available understudy.
She bowed her head acknowledging Minako as she finished singing and blew a kiss to the audience, the woman's eyes catching Haruka's briefly. It was really a shame the girl was straight, not that Minako hadn't tried to convince Haruka and everyone else otherwise. Still, their secretly dysfunctional relationship did manage to keep Haruka out of trouble, something her sponsors insisted on, and Minako safe from overzealous fans, something Haruka insisted on.
As the curtain came down a second time, Minako and her costar, Hisashi, bowed. Hisashi kissed Minako's hand eliciting a giggle to the delight of the audience. Haruka's final thought as she headed out of the box and into the crowd was why she hadn't felt any jealousy. For the past two years, she'd treated Minako as a girlfriend, but while they had lived as girlfriends, acted as such in public, something was missing. It was a hollow relationship.
Haruka chuckled dryly. Like the rest of her life. She clenched and released her fist briefly. If she could create the illusion of a perfect life, maybe she would have it. Maybe the emptiness in her chest would ease. Until then, she would perfect the illusion. Just as she perfected the image of being a man. She wasn't ashamed to be a woman, and at home as well as on occasion, she would wear skirts, the shorter the better, but her public persona was a finely tuned instrument. The tuxedo lapels and draped scarf hid what the sports bra couldn't. Her hair was cut short. More than once, Minako had told her she could have had a career in music. Haruka always laughed and replied that she didn't have the musical training or vocal discipline required. The only vocal training she'd ever truly done was to expunge any girlish giggles and expressions from her vocabulary. Her thoughts were interrupted as her girlfriend bounded up to her and hugged her tightly.
"You came!"
Haruka chuckled gently. That she would be there was a given though Minako's enthusiasm was infective. "You were perfect today," she offered, leaning down to kiss the other blond. As their lips met, Haruka tried to ignore the nagging lack she felt she offered to her partner. "I have another surprise for you."
Minako giggled and eased into the crook of her arm as the pair made their way to Haruka's surprise. The gasp was worth every ounce of effort Haruka put into the illusion that was her life. Minako looked up at her after ogling the yellow convertible in front of them, the valet offering the keys to Haruka. "That's yours?"
The taller blond chuckled and shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. At least not yet. Tonight, it is a loaner, from my new sponsor as incentive to win my race Sunday."
The confusion overtaking the younger woman's face brought a larger smile to her face. "Tomorrow, I have my first official race as a Super Formula racer. Which means tonight is a double celebration." She was certain her eardrums would burst from the force of the squeal her partner offered.