Our Daughter
By Misha

Disclaimer- I do NOT own the series or anything in them. Naoko Takeuchi has that pleasure, not me. I wish I did, but I don't. I'm also not making any money off using them in this story so please don't sue me.

Author's Notes- This came to me early one morning and though it took several weeks for me to write it down, I just couldn't get it out of my mind. I was thinking about Serena's mother, her mothers actually. I wondered if Mrs. Tsukino ever noticed the distance between her and her child. After all, she's not Serena's only mother. Anyway, the idea intrigued me, so this was born. Also, I used the American names, because the Japanese ones just didn't fit. So, I called Irene, Irene and Kenji, Ken. It just flowed better that way. One last thing, this is the first Sailor Moon piece I have written in a very long time and I have no idea how I did, so constructive criticism is craved. Well, that's all, enjoy!

Rating- PG

Irene Tsukino watched her daughter with curious eyes.

Sometimes there was something about Serena that startled her.

It was strange, but every once in a while, Serena seemed like a stranger.

The way she held her head, the distant look in her eyes, it was like Irene's daughter had become someone else.

Usually, Serena was the bright, happy creature that Irene knew so well, but occasionally there was different air about her. A regalness that transformed her into a stranger.

It hadn't always been like that.

It wasn't until Serena had turned fourteen that she had slowly grown away from Irene. It was as if something had happened to turn her into a different person.

Irene shook her head. She just didn't understand it. She wasn't sure that she ever would.

But then, there were lots of little things about her daughter that she had never understood.

The most pressing being her colouring. Both Irene and Kenji had non-Asian ancestors, giving them fairly Anglo colouring.

But neither of them were nearly as fair as Serena.

It often puzzled Irene where her daughter had gotten her blonde hair and blue eyes, as those traits weren't common in either of their families.

Still, she had learnt to put her questions aside, as she had given up hoping on ever getting a real answer.
***

That night, Irene drifted off to sleep, her mind still focused on her daughter.

Suddenly, she found herself standing in front of a beautiful palace. She was guided by some unknown force so that she was soon inside the palace walls.

She found herself standing in what looked like an elaborate nursery.

A beautiful woman with silver hair sat on a rocking chair holding an infant.

Irene stared at the woman. There was something so familiar about her... And her hair, she wore it in the same unusual style that Serena had picked for herself when she was young.

Suddenly, the scene in front of Irene had changed and she was standing in a throne room.

The silver-haired woman sat regally on the throne in the middle of the room.

"Your majesty," A cat, who looked remarkably like Serena's Luna, announced as she ran into the room, "the Princess and her court are due back from Earth any minute now."

The woman nodded. "Very good."

Just then there was a bright light and five teenage girls suddenly appeared.

The woman stood and held out her arms. Almost immediately, one of the girls ran into them.

"Mother!" She cried excitedly.

Irene stared at the girl in shock.

It was Serena. Yet, there was something different about her and it wasn't just the strange clothes.

The regalness and purpose that Irene occasionally sense in her daughter, seemed ingrained in this girl. As if they were a part of her very being.

But Irene's mischievous, happy-go-lucky daughter was still there. She could see it in the girl's excited blue eyes and happy smile.

"I missed you." The girl said as she cuddled up to her mother.

"I missed you too, my darling." The silver-haired woman said softly. She held her tight and then released her. "However, we can catch up in a few minutes, why don't you go unpack."

The girl nodded and turned to go, the other girls followed her lead after curtsying briefly to the silver-haired woman. The cat also left the room, leaving the silver-haired woman alone.

Suddenly, she smiled and turned towards Irene.

"You must be very puzzled." She said softly.

Irene stared. "You can see me?"

"Of course." The woman answered quietly. "It is I who brought you here. I knew it was time to give you answers to the questions that you have in your heart."

Irene bit her lip. "There's so much I don't understand."

"I know." The woman said quietly. "Let me introduce myself, I am Queen Serenity, ruler of the Moon Kingdom."

Irene stared at her. "Huh?"

"A thousand years ago, there was a great time called the Silver Millennium." Queen Serenity explained. "The planets lived in peace and harmony. Then war and destruction came. At the end, I knew that myself and my kingdom were doomed, but I sent my daughter and her court to the future to be reborn, knowing that there would come a time that they would be needed again."

Queen Serenity paused and looked deep into Irene's eyes.

"I wanted my daughter to be happy and thrive." She said softly. "So I chose carefully the family in which she would be born into."

"I don't understand." Irene said softly.

Queen Serenity smiled. "I think you do. You see, I chose you, Irene Tsukino, to be the mother of my daughter's reincarnated self."

Irene stared at her.

"What?" She paused. "Is that why she's so fair?"

Serenity nodded. "Yes. Serena's reincarnated form took on the appearance of her past life. As well as the same name. You were going to call your unborn child Katherine, I believe?"

Irene nodded. "Yes. But it didn't seem right. Now, now I know why. Because she was destined to be Serena."

"Yes." Queen Serenity said. "But she is destined to wear many names. In my time she was Princess Serenity Selene Isis Diana. In yours, she is Serena Irene Tsukino. But those are only the two of the names she is destined to have."

The queen held out a hand to Irene. "Come, I have something to show you."

Irene took it and suddenly found herself standing in Tokyo watching a battle.

"You see, in this time she is not yet destined to take up her role as princess, or rather future Queen." Queen Serenity said softly. "But she is still the Champion of the Moon and until she claims her throne, she represents her home planet in another way, as the Sailor Soldier of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon."

Irene's eyes widened as she took in the image of the fighting senshi. Her daughter.

"When?" She asked quietly. "When did she become Sailor Moon?"

But in her heart she already knew the answer.

"When she was fourteen." Queen Serenity said quietly, just like Irene had known she was going to.

"That's why she changed." Irene said quietly. "The differences I sensed in her, they were because she had become someone else. Because she became your daughter, not mine."

"No." Queen Serenity said softly. "She's as much your daughter as she is mine."

"But you were her mother first." Irene whispered desperately.

"But you are the mother she knows." Queen Serenity quietly. "She has shadowy memories of me, memories that are a thousand years old, but you are real to her. Serenity is, and always will be, my daughter, but Serena is yours."

Irene didn't say anything. She was trying to digest one the Queen was telling her.

"She's more Serena than she is Serenity." Queen Serenity continued in a soft voice. "There are moments when she becomes the person she was, moments that you have sensed, but as a whole, she hasn't changed."

Irene looked into the eyes of the beautiful queen.

"Why me?" She asked softly. "Why did you send her to me?"

"Because I knew that you would love her." Queen Serenity said gently. "I wanted Serena to be loved and cherished and you did that for her. You gave her a happy childhood."

Irene was quiet, trying to figure out what to say.

"It's so strange to think that my Serena had another mother before me." She said finally. "Even stranger to think that she was once a princess and is now a Sailor Senshi."

"She will one day be Queen." Queen Serenity said quietly. "Many years from now, there will come a time when she will take her rightful place as monarch the way she would have done had the Moon Kingdom never fallen."

Irene shook her head. "I can't picture that. My pretty, flighty Serena as Queen."

She paused. "But then she won't be, will she? It'll be Serenity, your daughter, who will be Queen."

Queen Serenity shook her head. "It'll be both. You see, they need each other. Serenity existed long before Serena and Serena had many years before she was ever influenced by Serenity, but it is the combination of both personalities that will make her the Queen she is destined to be. Neo-Queen Serenity will be the combination of both of our daughters."

Irene smiled and nodded.

"I understand." She said softly. "Not my daughter or yours, but ours."

"Yes." Queen Serenity said softly. "Ours. I had no attention of stealing your daughter, I just want to share her."

"I can do that." Irene said softly. "I can share her with you, because I wouldn't have her if you hadn't chosen to share her with me."
***

Irene awoke in her bed and the memories of her dream came rushing back. But was it a dream?

It seemed so real and it answered so many questions...

Quietly, she got up and snuck into her daughter's room.

She went over to Serena's bedside table and picked up the broach she always wore.

Was it true? Was her baby Sailor Moon?

Irene paused and looked at the cat sleeping at Serena's feet.

In her dream, Luna had been able to talk. Perhaps she really could. It was worth a try to find out.

Irene gently shook the cat so that she was awake.

"Luna, I know this sounds strange, but can you talk? Is my daughter really a reincarnated Moon Princess? Is she really Sailor Moon?" Irene questioned.

The cat stared at her. "How did you know?" She asked finally.

Irene stepped back in shock. So it wasn't a dream.

"I was visited by Queen Serenity." She said quietly. "She told me the truth about Serena."

Luna looked at her and then nodded.

"You must not tell anyone that you know." She said sternly. "Not even Serena."

Irene nodded. "I understand. I just needed to know."
***

Irene watched Serena carefully.

She was trying to see the pieces of Serenity in her daughter.

She looked carefully and saw hints in the way her daughter held her head and a regallness present in her voice and body movement.

Ingrained actions that Serena wasn't even aware of. Tiny reminders of another woman, another mother.

Irene smiled as she saw herself in her daughter as well. In Serena's smile and her laugh.

Her daughter was still hers. She just belonged to someone else as well.

Besides, the mystery was finally solved.

At last, Irene understood her daughter. She understood all of her, even the parts that would always be separate of her.

The parts of her that would always be another woman's daughter.

But Irene wasn't threatened, because she was her daughter as well. She was both of theirs.

Are you watching Serenity? Irene asked silently. Are you as proud of our daughter as I am?

For that's truly what she was. Their daughter.

And Irene didn't mind sharing. Because by being able to share Serena, she was able to know the part of her daughter that otherwise would have been a stranger to her and that meant the world to her.

The End