The palace was eeriely quiet- something most of its inhabitants were unused to, considering a young princess normally ran the halls. One in particular, the queen of said castle, felt restless and unnerved, which was what prompted her to rise from her bed and slip back into her once discarded gown. "Serenity..." The sleepy, male voice came from her bed, and she turned back around, sapphire eyes meeting the deep, dark oxford colored ones of her king, and she could not help but to smile. "Where are you going?" He asked, propping himself up onto an elbow, his concern mounting for the woman before her. This was not the first night this month she'd risen from bed.
"To see Small Lady," the queen decided in an instant, before she turned and exited the chamber, passing by her guards without a passing glance. She took to the corridors, her feet carrying her the familiar path that would lead her to her daughter's chamber. This indeed was not the first night she'd been unable to sleep- her nights were plagued by dreams and by horror, a preminition of sorts that left her chilled to the bone. She knew, without a doubt, that a battle was coming and it was coming soon.
As her hand touched the door knob, Serenity knew that her daughter also lay awake in her bed. Upon her entering, Small Lady rose up from her pillows, and at once Serenity could see that she had been crying. "Mama..." The child said softly and at once, the forever young quene sank down onto her bed, drawing her into her arms. "What is happening?" Small Lady whispered through her tears, her voice muffled as she buried her face into her mother's chest. "I saw..." She trailed off, unable to voice the horrors of the dream she had seen, unaware that her mother had seen the very same one.
"Small Lady..." Serenity said softly, holding her child at arm's length for a moment, before cupping her damp cheeks between her palms, never taking her eyes off hers. "You have nothing to fear, my dear." Serenity was not so certain she felt that confident of her words, but she would never allow Small Lady to know that. "A battle is coming, but you must not fear that." She went on, swiping her thumbs beneath her daughter's eyes, a mirror image of her father's in all but color. "I will always protect you." She drew her daughter back in then, crawling into her bed beside her, holding her as she had done when she'd been a baby. They lay side by side in silence a while, until Serenity looked down upon her face expecting her to be asleep. But Small Lady still yet lay in silence, clearly lost in thoughts beyond her years. "We are all made of stars and stories, Small Lady..." Serenity said quietly, drawing the attention back to herself, and she felt her daughter's eyes upon her. "That is the way of the senshi. To fight to protect those we love, no matter the cost."
"But what if... What if we can't win?"
Serenity sighed softly and returned Small Lady to her previous position, gently stroking her long, soft locks of hair. "Once, I too thought I could not win." She said into the darkness, recalling the dark thoughts that had once consumed her. "I thought that there was no will left to go on. That there was no power left yet inside of me." She wondered what Small Lady was thinking of- what battle could her all powerful mother have ever thought she could not win? "I had nothing left, for even you and your father had been taken from me." Ah, now she could see the recognition on Small Lady's face, who could recall that fierce battle she fought in the past with Usagi and the others. "I stood alone against the darkest of foes, against the most evil of beings... And I thought I could not go on. Why would I want to, when those I loved most were gone?"
Small Lady remained still and silent beside her mother, daring only once to look up at her mother's beautiful features. It had been years since then, since she had dared to return to the past to help Usagi and the others, only to find the past a world she did not know. Only to fade from existence when Mamoru had been pushed into the cauldron. She shivered, having never been told this story, never knowing what had happened between her fading and her return to the 30th Century when Usagi had somehow won. The look in her mother's eyes was somber and so like the eyes she had looked into when she had met Usagi that day. "You could never give up..." Small Lady whispered, drawing herself from her mother's arms to sit up and look at her. "Usagi never... You never..."
Serenity smiled a wane sort of smile, one that did not much to brighten the sorrowful look in her eyes, but she nodded. "Of course I couldn't." She could still remember the feeling as Sailor Cosmos appeared before her, reminding her that a future was still yet to come, and she had made her choice. To plunge into the Cauldron and release the power that Galaxia and Chaos had sought after- to fill the galaxy with the bright and shining light of the ginzuishou and hope it could heal everything. She could still recall freefalling into the darkness, with nothing but her own power, the memories of her life racing through her mind. And then it had ended, as quickly as it had begun.
And here they were.
"I would never, ever give up. And you musn't either. No matter what this new battle brings." Serenity spoke soft, even words to her daughter who had so suddenly grown up. Who had a team of her own and was learning to lead. Serenity had never anticipated her to have to battle on her own, but again, here they were. Soon, the past would begin to repeat itself as it most often did, and Chaos would return to claim the galaxy. But they would be ready. "If you're scared, just remember this: you have the heart of a solider and comrades to fight beside you. That will always give you strength." She could recall the many times throughout her days as a soldier that it was not she but her friends that gave her the strength to win. They had always been the ones to remind her that she could fight and win. She had to, if she wanted to protect them all, after all. Small Lady was nodding and Serenity leaned in to kiss her daughter's temple, before she rose up from the bed. "Sleep, dearest, and tomorrow we shall continue your studies." Small Lady nodded again and slipped beneath the covers, sleep already beginning to claw at her. As she closed her eyes, her mother glided back to the door and into the hall, knowing something dark was approaching.
Tomorrow there would be no studies, for tomorrow there would be war.