The Lost Princess

Part One: Shrouded Memories

AN: This story will plod on for a few chapters, but bear with me. It'll get better.

Seiya woke up with a start at 3 p.m. For the third night in a row. He'd been having strange dreams of and on for almost a year, but this was the first time they'd happened repeatedly every night. It was the same thing each time; he was desperately searching for someone dear to him. That someone was in danger. Every time, he was running through mist, calling for someone whose name escaped him when he awoke. The dreams weren't necessarily frightening, but they were intense. The dream always ended in the exact same way; he was getting close to whoever he was trying to rescue, but all he saw of her was long, gleaming golden hair, and a flash of tear-filled cerulean eyes before everything dissolved into flames. That was when he woke up.

The raven-haired boy rubbed his eyes and tried to clear his head. These dreams were getting more and more common at night. What was causing them? Who was he searching for so desperately? Why did he have this nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right with his life? His comrades were still with him, and no one he knew was dead or missing, but something just felt wrong. He'd been feeling like something important to him was missing, but could not for the life of him fathom what it was. He hadn't told Taiki or Yaten; they would just worry and wonder if he'd finally gone round the bend. Seiya looked around his room, and noticed something strange. There were pictures of him with his friends, but there was always an empty space somewhere, like someone else should have been there. The background was there, but it was like someone else should have been in the picture. He'd never noticed that before.

Then, he had a vague image of sparkling cerulean eyes, just like the ones in his dream, and, as if in a dream, heard a girl's voice murmur, "I love you, Seiya." It sounded achingly familiar, but he didn't understand why. It felt like a buried memory, but no matter how hard he tried, Seiya could not recall it to his mind. Could it be that some unknown part of his mind was trying to tell him something? Why couldn't he remember? It was extremely frustrating. The dark-haired boy lay down and tried to get back to sleep. But alas, he could not. He couldn't stop thinking about the dreams. Why was he dreaming of the same thing over and over? It was puzzling, and troubled him. He didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the night.

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Seiya groaned as the alarm clock went off the next morning. He was so tired…he hadn't slept at all last night since that annoying dream had shaken him up. He stayed in bed, hoping that perhaps Taiki might take pity on him and find an excuse to keep him out of school. That hope was dashed when the chestnut-haired genius in question was heard to say, "Come on, Seiya. It's time to get up." Seiya moaned and pulled the covers over his head. He heard Taiki sigh. That wasn't good; it usually meant that Yaten would come in and very roughly toss Seiya out of the bed. Did he really want to go through that today?

"Go'way, Taiki," Seiya mumbled. "Tired…"

"I'm tired, too, Seiya. All of us are. But I'm up, and so is Yaten. So you have to get out of bed and suck it up like the rest of us."

"Mean!"

"If I wanted to be mean, I would have sicced Yaten on you earlier. Shall I go get him?"

"No!" Seiya leapt out of bed, if only because he didn't want Yaten to come in and dump him out of it.

Taiki looked at him. "The dream again?"

"Yeah…that's the third night in a row."

"It's gotten worse?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Sounds like your subconscious wants to tell you something."

"That's what I'm thinking. But I don't understand the message."

"Well, considering what you described your dream as, it sounds like you may have forgotten something incredibly important."

"That isn't all, though. I noticed something weird about some pictures in my room. You know how we always try to keep them centered?"

"Yes…?"

"Well, they look lopsided, like someone else was in the picture, but got wiped out of it."

"Hmm…let me see."

Seiya showed him the pictures, and Taiki immediately noticed what Seiya was talking about. It was so strange…why hadn't they noticed it before?

"You say you just noticed this?"

"Yeah. After I woke up from the dream."

"Did anything else happen?"

"You'll think I've completely lost my mind if I tell you." Seiya wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Taiki about the weird, dreamlike flash he'd experienced. He wasn't even sure if it was a memory. It could be a hallucination.

"What is it?"

"Do you remember what I told you, about how all I could see was her hair and eye color? Well, I had this…flash, where I saw her eyes, and I think I heard her speak. I thought it was a memory, but I'm not sure anymore. It's so weird…"

Taiki's face held a look of shock. "That's strange…because Amy had the same sort of thing happen to her a couple days ago."

"So you don't think I'm losing it?"

"No…it's just too coincidental. Besides that, I've experienced the same thing. Now be honest with me, Seiya. Have you ever felt like something was off? Like something huge was missing from your life?"

"Yeah…"

"That settles it. Something weird is going on, and somehow, I have a feeling it isn't just the three of us. It isn't just a strange little coincidence. Our minds are trying to tell us something."

"Do you think some force could be messing with our heads?"

"It's possible. Or maybe someone messed with our memories, and those memories are starting to resurface."

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Rae knelt before the Great Fire, searching for answers. She'd been having strange flashes for three months now. All of them were centered around someone with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Over time, she'd begun to be able to identify facial features, but still couldn't make out the person's face. All she knew was what she felt. Sometimes, she felt annoyed and affectionately exasperated. Other times, she felt just affectionate and teasing. Whoever was in these flashes, it was someone she knew. But why didn't she remember them? She'd been asking the fire, but all she could see in the flames were convoluted images that didn't make sense, and apparently were connected with the Moon Kingdom. Could it be…?

They'd never found Princess Serenity. Could it be that the Princess of the White Moon was about to appear? Was she trying to send them a message and tell them of her whereabouts? If so, then she needed to pay close attention. Those flashes could be shrouded memories meant to point her to where the Moon Princess was. Rae decided to tell Trista the next time she saw her. Of course, that was probably a waste of time. Chances were, Trista already knew. It was hard to guess what the time soldier knew. Probably everything. She always seemed to know when someone was in trouble. Maybe she could help make sense of the images and they could get to the bottom of this.