Intro for The Missing Prince

Greetings everyone!

I began writing this story before my other SM fic, Light of Love. If you are a fan of LOL, don't worry about this story overshadowing it. I intend to finish LOL. Hopefully, very soon.

I had forgotten all about this little ditty, but I recently rediscovered it when cleaning up some files. After much hemming and hawing, I've decided to post it. The story was written in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, which means, although much of it is already written, I need to perform a LOT of revision work on it before it sees the light of day.

This tale, unlike my other SM fic, is set in the present day and future. For those familiar with my style of writing, I can sometimes be non-linear, and this is quite evident in the prologue. The prologue addresses things that will arise again much later in the story, but I wanted to include a little taste of what the future holds. I've titled each section to help with orienting the reader. I hope it helps. I'm not sure if I will keep these later on in the story, but if you like them, please let me know.

The title, like much about this tale, is a working title. I plan not to change it until the story is completed.

Without further ado…

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon. (does anyone else do these, or am I just practicing a lost art form of providing disclaimers with every chapter?)

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Dreams in the Future

"Small Lady!" a masculine voice echoed in her ears. It penetrated through the silence, as though its owner desperately wanted to reach her.

The girl abruptly sat up in her bed. Much like a runner sprinting in a race, her breaths were heavy and rapid as she gulped the air. Her eyelids fluttered. She glanced around the unlit room with her dark nutmeg-red eyes.

Her bedchamber, which was normally so familiar to her during the day, frightened her at night. Darkness engulfed everything around her, save for a slip of pale moonlight shining through the bedroom window. The glow of the moon cut through the thick molasses pitch of twilight. The sliver of light fell across the pink down comforter of the girl's bed. She glanced quickly around the room to the dresser and various tables that occupied the space. The dark gave way to shadows, which seemed to absorb into nothingness all around her. The vaulted ceiling of her room created a chasm of blackness, reminding her of a tomb. She cringed.

She settled her eyes on her surroundings. A small sigh escaped her lips and her breathing became even. She did not know the man who called to her in her dreams; however, she had heard his voice so often in her sleep that the tenor of it was as familiar to her as her own laugh. His voice both comforted and frightened her. The desperation screaming in his tones tore at her soul.

For the past few nights, the girl had experienced the strangest dreams. She would often awake as she had just now, the tension and fear racking her mind and stifling her lungs. Although she was often terrified in the dream, she did not consider these strange visions to be nightmares.

In them, a man desperately tried to reach her. She could see his figure running toward her. His arms were extended to touch her. Each time, the girl would turn her head toward the noise and see this figure running to her. She, too, would stretch her arms out and run toward him. Before she reached him, she would slip away from him and fall into darkness. Each time, the echoing cries of the man would envelope her ears as she fell deeper and deeper into a chasm of pitch black. She would scream, the man would cry for her one last time, and then she would wake up.

The girl bit her bottom lip and squeezed her eyes shut. She attempted to recall the images again. This dream had been different. This time, she had seen him. He had not just been a blur. This time, she had seen his face.

Her eyelids snapped open. Her gaze settled on the clock on her nightstand. She noted that it was only three o' clock. Everyone else in the palace was fast asleep. She yawned. Stretching her arms upward, she sighed again. Like everyone, she too, should be fast asleep. She glanced to the window. She gazed at the slight light shining through her curtains. She wondered if she would have the dream again.

The sound of a small bell interrupted the girls' thoughts. She jumped slightly.

"Usagi-chan?" a small petite voice called. The girl looked to the pillow beside her. Wide, gray eyes peered up at her through the darkness. The girl sighed and petted the cat. The feline blinked and moved to sit on the girl's lap. Its grey head fell into the slip of light, causing the crescent moon on its forehead to glow. The girl rubbed the top of the cat's head, tracing the crescent shape with her left index finger.

"It was nothing, Diana," the girl whispered, closing her eyes. She blinked them open again, and glanced up at the full moon.

She picked up the purring bundle of fur and crossed to the window. After pulling back the pale, filmy curtain, she allowed herself bask in the glow of moonlight. The evening sky was clear, and the pinholes of countless stars twinkled above. Her reddish brown eyes peered upward, focusing on the full moon. The round sphere in the sky hung like a small pearl in the cloudless sky above the horizon. She breathed deeply and placed her right hand on the cool glass window pane. The glow of the moon comforted her. She had always found solace in the moon. When standing in moonlight, the girl's apprehensions and worries seemed to wash away.

"Did you have another bad dream?" the cat asked, purring affectionately in her arms.

Usagi frowned.

"I don't think it was a bad dream," she muttered to her feline companion.

She mumbled quietly to herself about the dream, attempting to remember it. This one had been different than all of the others. Diana's collar jingled as the cat nuzzled the top of her grey head into the girl's left palm. Usagi sighed. Diana obviously wanted to know what had awakened her. She cleared her throat and quietly told her.

"I was walking among ruins of a beautiful city made of crystal, and a man was calling to me..."

"A man?" Diana squeaked. Usagi never talked about men. In their small, protected pocket of the world, she did not have many opportunities to encounter men. Of course, Usagi was turning sixteen in a few weeks, and so it was only natural the girl may think of men, the small cat silently reasoned.

"Not THAT type of a man, Diana!" Usagi snapped, rolling her nutmeg eyes. She leaned over and placed the cat gently onto the cold marble floor. She sighed again, looking back up to the moon. "I think he was an older man. Like Mama's age."

"Oh!" Diana muttered, "He was an older man." She tucked her pink nose into her paws in embarrassment. She should know better than to jump to conclusions. Usagi didn't know any men her own age, well, save for her cousin, but he was a year younger than the girl. He was not even old enough to be considered a man.

Usagi slowly plodded back to her disheveled bed. She pulled the covers back and crawled into the bed's pocket of warmth. Diana jumped on the soft mattress and settled on the top of the pink down comforter. She made a point of curling up in a ball less than an arm's length from her mistress. Usagi rested her head back down on her pillow. Long strands of pink hair pooled around her. She pulled her sheets and blankets up to her chin. Instead of reaching out to pet the expectant feline, she rolled over and looked out of the window. The curtains were still pulled back, but she could barely see the moon. Usagi closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. His image flashed in her head. She smiled.

"He wore a dark cape," Usagi began dreamily. She opened her eyes again to glance up at the moon.

"Like the King's?" Diana questioned. Usagi rolled her eyes.

"Better than the King's!" she declared, remembering how the dark fabric billowed brilliantly behind him, curling itself into the sunset. "He appeared to be a noble man, one of great wisdom and infinite strength. Tall with dark hair as dark as midnight, and the most amazing blue eyes..."

"Like the king's?" Diana asked again, causing her companion to hurl a small pillow at the feline. Diana squeaked and giggled. Usagi scrunched her nose and closed her eyes, reaching into her mind for the image from her dream.

"They were like the King's," Usagi whispered, squeezing her eyes tighter, "but they were more brilliant blue...and kind." Pausing for a moment, she added, "…and strong...compassionate."

Diana smiled. "He sounds like a nice man." she purred.

Usagi grinned and nodded. Small tears formed in her eyes. She took in a deep breath.

Why was she crying? It had only been a dream.

"He came toward me, and he said, 'Don't cry, Small Lady,'" she quietly said.

"Small Lady?" Diana pondered. "But you're not a small lady! You're even taller than your mother. You're almost taller than the king!"

"HE was taller than the king!" the girl proclaimed. She clasped her hands together and placed them underneath her head. "And he called me 'Small Lady' because I was smaller than he was."

"Well," Diana said with a "humph." She rested her own head onto her front paws before suggesting, "He should line you up with other girls of your age, and then he'll see that you aren't small!"

Usagi smiled. The man of her dreams, her knight, did not need to worry about placing her in a line-up. Just the thought of this man made her heart warm with delight. She remained awake for a long time, thinking about him. He seemed desperate to reach her. She thought about curling up in his warm, protective arms. Just the thought made her feel safe and loved. As she thought about the man, Chiba Usagi lulled back into a peaceful sleep, the name "Small Lady" leaving a faint smile on her delicate pink lips.

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Hope for a Better Tomorrow

A pair of women, very far from the scene taking place in the young girl's bedroom, stared into a delicately adorned hand mirror. Along the left side of the gilded looking glass was the figure of a woman. She also appeared to be spying into the mirror, thoughtfully eyeing the reflective image.

The woman with blue, curled hair tipped her head to the side and frowned. Her aqua eyes glistened as she blinked back unshed tears. Using the mirror, she and her companion witnessed the scene that had just transpired between the young maiden and her cat.

"Oh," she gasped, holding her free hand up to her pursed lips, "that is so sweet!"

"Bittersweet," the blonde muttered underneath her breath. She turned from the mirror and began to pace the small room. She wore a hooded tunic and dark brown denim riding pants. Her heavy, knee-high boots thumped loudly on the hollow, loose floorboards beneath her. She ran her hands nervously through her cropped hair.

She was accustomed to a battle that she could actually fight. Instead, she and her companion had been hiding in this small, dismal shack for—she cursed under her breath. She dreaded to think how long they had been in hiding. They had spent years in this hovel, peering into the mirror, unable to help the people they observed. Like a pair of criminals, she and her companion were confined to this dim hell. Of course, they practically were criminals. If they were spotted by anyone who had seen their images on the hundreds of wanted posters splattered throughout Tokyo and across the world, their lives would most likely be terminated.

"This is good," the other woman said, placing the mirror on the only table in the room. She walked toward her partner, attempting to calm her. "This is a wonderful sign."

"How is this good?" the blonde demanded. Her temper was about to explode. She wanted to hurl herself out of their dark, confined room, burst into the night, and bump into someone not wise enough to stay away from her. She wanted to hit something—badly—to expel the anger and frustration that festered and rotted her soul.

"She saw him. If only in her dreams, it's something to look forward to," she was told.

"Humph!" she continued to pace, wringing her hands. "A little girl has a dream of her dead father, and you think it's a good thing? Call me a pessimist, but…"

"It is a good thing, Haruka!" interrupted the other woman. "It means that he will come soon, and take his place beside his queen—our queen."

Haruka stared into the eyes of her companion. The other girl gazed at her, her aqua blue eyes sparkling in the dark room. Haruka smiled halfheartedly.

"I trust you, Michiru," she finally told her. Michiru smiled back. "So he will return to the living," Haruka huffed, running her fingers through her hair again. It was a nervous habit she had always had, but over the past several years, it had become an annoying trait. She plopped her tall, thin form into a rickety wooden chair. It groaned under her weight.

"And we will be waiting for him," Michiru declared, sitting on Haruka's lap. The chair—their only chair—creaked and groaned again.

"Well," Haruka mumbled, wrapping her arms around her partner, "I hope that the King does not expect him."

Michiru frowned, nodding in contemplation. Haruka had a point. The King was not even a nice man to those he supposedly loved. She dreaded to think of what he would do to his sworn enemy and greatest rival. He would stop at nothing to prevent Mamoru from reclaiming the throne.

"The King must not know of his arrival," Michiru solemnly declared. "We will find him first."

"How?" Haruka pondered.

Even with Michiru's mirror, there was no way of knowing where he would be, much less when he arrived. If one of the King's minions saw him first, any hope they had of ever leaving this shack, of protecting their queen, and of guarding this planet would dissolve.

Michiru looked into Haruka's face and shrugged. Her aqua eyes flooded with tears. She buried her head into Haruka's shoulder and sobbed softly. Haruka held the woman tightly. She ran her hands over Michiru's wavy, aqua hair. Haruka stared up at the loose boards of the ceiling. Breathing deeply, the blonde closed her eyes and contemplated their circumstance.

Their situation seemed hopeless. Without the true king standing beside their queen, everything they had ever fought for had been for naught. The few who even remembered Chiba Mamoru had ever existed, much less that he had mysteriously disappeared, had assumed long ago that he had been killed. Even the King, who had spent years scouring the Earth for his nemesis, had finally begun to breathe a sigh of relief, as evident by his slackening military rule.

The two women hiding in this dark room had racked their brains for years, trying to discover what had happened to Mamoru or where he had gone. In the process, they had been cursed with the consequences of his dearly missed absence. Had he taken his rightful place as heir to this kingdom, this city—the entire world—would have flourished. Instead, all things living slowly rotted around them. The most base of negative human emotions ran rampant in this depressed city. These two women, the last of the Sailor Senshi, were the only ones left who could help Mamoru Chiba return the world to its proper alignment.

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Sweet Dreams in the Present

"Serenity, I have come back for you," the man's voice jarred Tskino Usagi from her deep slumber.

The blonde stirred, opening her eyelids slowly. Rolling over, she saw the form standing above her. His back was to the window, which cast enough light for Usagi to recognize the silhouette of a top hat, the edges of a domino mask, and the unnatural shape caused by, what she presumed to be, a cape.

"Mamo-chan?" she uttered, blinking tiredly. "Why are you dressed as Tuxedo Mask? Are we in danger?"

"No, my princess, not anymore," he whispered. His voice sounded slightly muffled, as though he held a hand over his mouth. He stooped over Usagi's form.

"What are you doing home from the hospital?" she asked. "Slow night in the ER?"

"I came get you," was his reply.

Usagi's head, adjusting to consciousness, still lingered on the edge of her dreams. Suddenly, the bright piercing light of a flame engulfed a corner of the room. Usagi closed her eyes and groaned. She covered her head with a blanket as she attempted to shield herself from the intense, burning light. Even underneath a layer of blankets, she could see the glow.

"Mamo-chan!" she scolded. A hint of grumpiness tinged her words.

"I will return, Serenity," he replied. The light faded from the room.

Usagi threw back the covers and glanced around. A glow bathed the hallway with light. While Usagi rolled over, she saw Tuxedo Mask's form fade, as if floating, through the doorway. She frowned. The light flickered from the direction of the living room. After a few moments, the light disappeared. Once again, the apartment was dark and quiet.

Usagi's eyelids slid shut. Her breaths became rhythmic, indicating that she had fallen back into deep sleep.

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End of Prologue

So…what did you think? Are you curious? Confused?

Thanks for reading. Please review!

Hollie