This story is based heavily on the SNES game Sailor Moon: Another Story. If you haven't played it, you will not understand what this fanfiction is all about. I highly suggest you play it, however; it's really fun and the story is wonderful. I currently started playing it, again, and decided to write this on a whim. It shouldn't be more than two chapters long, three at the most, and should have the conclusion up within the next few days, depending on my schedule and motivation. I also may make other versions, one for each inner senshi, but this is a high maybe.
Also, I do not own Sailor Moon, nor any of its affiliated merchandise. So no sueing me.
Love, Kirux

Suki to Itte - Venus Edition
Chapter One

No one ever talked about it. Minako didn't know why they didn't; they just didn't. She found it odd, too. They'd talk about the Black Moon, the Death Busters, the Sailor Animates (How could they not? Such weird outfits!) but never ever did they talk about the Opposite Senshi.

One day, sitting at the Crown Cafe while sipping on a fruit smoothie, she decided to ask.

"Hey guys," she started slowly, swirling her drink with a straw as she gazed out the window, one hand propping up her head.

"Yes, Mina-chan?" Ami queried, peeking over the pages of her exam study guide.

"Why don't we ever talk about the summer we fought the Opposite Senshi?"

Everyone was quiet, not the ponderous quiet but the uncomfortable 'Did she really just ask that?' quiet.

"Well, I suppose it's that..." Ami started but stopped, completely unable to finish her explanation, seeing as she didn't have one.

"That it's what? We talk about all the other battles, why not that one?" She looked at each of her fellow senshi right in the face.

Ami averted her gaze, staring down at her book. The water guardian thought of her time in the cold glaciers of Switzerland. How the icy wind bit away at her, and how she nearly fell to death when so many youma came after her. About how she was saved by him...he was truly the most handsome man she had ever met. Urawa-kun and Taiki-kun didn't even come close. There was something about him that had reminded her of someone, she couldn't say whom...but it was like someone she had known a very long time ago. She sighed, concentrating her gaze anywhere but at Minako.

Rei shifted slightly, she looked down at her hands, which had busied themselves by wringing a poor defenseless napkin to shreds. The flame sniper remembered her trip to Nepal as though she had just came back from it. The exotic air, the strange landscape, the people...She took a deep breath. It was hard for her to think about him. How could he have really just been a spirit? Sometimes she wondered, what the real him looked like. How much he truly resembled Jadeite, if at all. She tried fire reading a couple, okay a lot, of times since then, but to no avail each time. Continuing to wring her shredded napkin, she kept her eyes everywhere but Minako.

Makoto gazed out the window, mimicking the soldier of love's motions, her long fingers gracefully swirling her straw around her drink. Jupiter's protector could still see his face, and his striking resemblance to Nephrite. She wondered how everything ended up after she left. She assumed that he and Mary were no longer together, considering they were cousins. Then again in the deep secluded woodlands of Canada it's not that anyone would ever really know. He sure was dreamy though, so much like her sempai at the time. She continued to gaze out the window, sighing heavily as she wondered how things could have gone, completely forgetting about Minako's question altogether.

Annoyed, Minako slammed down her hand causing the table to shake, everyone's glasses wobbling a bit and causing their owners to abruptly pay attention to her.

"Doesn't anyone have an answer!" She could feel her eyebrow twitching.

"Well, Mina-chan, it's not like you have until this point, either," Makoto pointed out coolly, "Why haven't you talked about it?"

"Well, that is...I mean to say that it's...to be honest..." Minako was flustered. She looked away, very aware of the blush she was now sporting across her face.

Turkey had been beyond marvelous. From the small conversations she had had with the other senshi at the time, her adventure had been very much a cakewalk. Beyond that, everywhere she went she was treated as royalty. In Rias, the men there fawned over her, showering the Goddess of love with gifts of unimaginable beauty. They even fought over her! In all her life, Minako had never dreamed she would be fought over! At first it had overwhelmed her, and she and Artemis fled from them. That's when she had first met him. His wavy dark blonde hair and brilliant blue eyes seemed to pierce right through her. He was kind and sweet, and although he fawned over her much like the rest, he did not try to force his feelings onto her. His were genuine, at least that is what she had always believed. What she still believed.

She looked up at everyone, who were now staring at her. She sighed, sliding down into the soft cushion of the seating. She didn't know how to answer. What would she tell them? 'Because I fell in love with a man I knew for less than three days and have been pining for him ever since?' They'd all laugh at her! It's not like they would understand.

"Sorry, everyone," she said quietly, "I just, thought it was strange..."

"I..." Makoto sat back, her arms folded over her chest as she heaved another big sigh, "I fell in love while I was in Canada. His named was George and he was the son of the chief in the first village I visited. He looked so much like the sempai I had just broken up with..."

"Mako-chan..." Venus stammered. Mako, too, had fallen in love that summer?

"I, too, had a brief romance during my mission," Rei said quietly. "Jaregg, was his name. In the end, he turned out to be a spirit from the temple whom the priests had prayed to their god for so that I may have a guide during my visit. He saved my life...but in the end all I could do was watch him disappear."

"Rei-chan," Jupiter looked at her friend, a hand resting on her arm, trying to comfort her as best she could.

"Hans," Ami stared back at her book, "saved my life after I fell from a glacier. He found me in the snow and took me back to his house, nursing me to health all the while his mother was slowly dieing in the other room. While searching for the Hi stone, he briefly accompanied me in search for a cure. Nabu almost killed him when the two of us fell down a hole because I set the Hi stone as a higher priority than getting his mother the medicine she so needed."

"Ami-chan," Mars looked at her, understanding very well the feelings of her friend.

Minako sat there, nearly dumbfounded by the fact that each and every one of them had also fallen in love during their quests for the Hi stones. The other three sat their, non-verbally consoling each other, all but forgetting Minako was sitting there.

And so she sat and pondered, mind drifting to that moment, in his house. Their final goodbyes. Her still lingering promise to come back and visit. Sure, it had been four years, but the world was finally at peace, she had all the time in the world now. High school was over and Minako had failed her first round of college entrance exams, sadly yet expectedly enough. But...she worked so hard to pass high school all while dealing with fighting off wave after wave of evil doers that would have Earth be destroyed. If nothing else, Minako decided she deserved a break...a vacation.

"I didn't mean to bring but such troubling memories for all of you," Minako said softly, "It wasn't my intention."

"It's not your fault," Mercury replied, "you didn't know."

"I think I'm going to head back home now," Mina stood up, focusing very hard on being as solemn as possible.

"Me, too," Mako, Rei, and Ami all concurred simultaneously.

Later that night, Minako laid in her bed, holding a beautifully cut golden topaz in her hand. She couldn't afford to actually purchase a trip to Turkey. Not only that but, arriving at some airport wouldn't get her anywhere near where she wanted to be. She needed something more direct, something that could link her right to that spot. She gasped and dropped the gem into her bed as she sat up suddenly. How could she be so stupid. She jumped out of bed, nearly tripping over the various articles of clothing on her floor as she grabbed her purse, reached back onto the bed for the topaz, then promptly proceeded to run down the steps at an extremely unsafe speed.

"Mom! I'm going over to Usagi's house for a few days! Bye!" She lied blatantly to her mother, who tried to say something in protest but Minako didn't hear it, for she was already out the door and halfway down the street.

She ran down the street for awhile before ducking into an alleyway, and pulled out from her bag an old forgotten pen she had kept in her desk drawer. It was her moon disguise pen back from when Artemis awakened her as Sailor V. She thrust it into the air shouting; "Moon Power! Transform!" In an instant, her clothes gave way to her classic Sailor V outfit. She figured this would be a little more covert than running around as Sailor Venus, especially when that running happened to be on roof tops and jumping over fences and walls without an issue. Little did anyone know, Sailor V was known to occasionally appear and moonlight for the special police, even to this day.

As she ran through the chill night air her heart began to pound faster and faster. The excitement building the the bottom of her stomach as she closed in on the Harumi warehouse district. That summer, though they had all agreed not to use it if it wasn't for dire circumstances, they had never gotten rid of the ark. And even though she had agreed, Venus figured it was her ark and who were they to try and tell her when she could or could not use it. She quickly arrived at the warehouse district, and pulled out her compact.

Beep...beep...beep. It was a slow steady signal. The outer senshi had been the ones to disguise the ark, to make sure that no one would ever find it. They had forgotten that Minako was its owner, and therefore had a connection much stronger than any of them to the vessel, and could find it if she ever desired it, which at this moment was very much so.

Walking around the old docks, the beeping got faster as she moved closer to the water. She had this dreaded feeling in her gut now that was only confirmed when she reached the edge of the pier and pointed the compact straight at the water. They had sunken it into the harbour. How typical, Mina though as she slipped the device back into her pouch. Uranus more than likely left it up to Neptune who used her standard answer of 'hide it in the ocean.' There wasn't much she could do about it, and with not so much as a second thought she dove into the water, praying she would be able to find it quickly.

The water was so cold Venus could have sworn she was traveling through the North Pole again. The salt water stung her eyes, but she fought to keep them open. The deeper she swam the darker it got and she could feel herself running out of air. She pushed harder through the water, feeling it slightly grow warm the farther she plunged. She could feel it, her ark was close. She struggled, trying to get to it. She could see it now, its golden glow warming her more. She reached out to it, but it was still so far away. Her air had run out, she felt her head starting to spin. 'Please! Please I want to get on! Just let me get there, please!' Then everything faded to darkness.