"She's going to die."
"Don't say that. Don't even think that." In the hospital room, a man clutched his daughter's cold, lifeless fingers, willing some life back into her. Slowly she was fading, he could almost see the colors draining from her once-vibrant hair. Her eyes had not opened in four days. She could no longer breathe on her own.
"My baby, my daughter. I don't understand. She's so young, so…."
"She's strong." He didn't sound any more hopeful than she did. "She'll get through it. She'll fight. She'll live."
But neither of them believed it.
--
"You will have to be prepared," Serenity cautioned Mamoru. "There will be many enemies in the times to come; you must be a faithful defender of this planet or it will be lost again."
"Lost? Again?" Mamoru echoed weakly.
Artemis stepped in. "Perhaps this isn't the best time for this conversation," he began.
"No, I want to know. How was it lost before?" Mamoru asked.
"The last time...in the last life, Endymion, we were not meant to be. We loved, yet our love brought the destruction of both our planets. Earth fell first, and then, in the war for the Moon, you were killed, defending me. It is something I did not want, and in my grief, I used the power of the Ginzuishou, the mystical silver crystal, to begin us again, to let everyone be reborn on a living Earth. It took over a thousand years for my magic to bring us back. In that time, the balance of Earth has shifted. You have lost your Kingdom, Mamoru. You have lost your throne and your people. This time, I fear that you will lose something infinitely more precious should we fail."
"We won't fail." He hoped he sounded certain, despite his own apprehensions. He wanted to reassure her; to put at ease the mind of the woman his heart already loved, had somehow always loved. "We won't fail this time."
"No." She smiled. "I believe in you. I have faith in you. You have never failed me, Mamoru. You never will."
He wished he could be as certain as she was.
"My lady, if you please." Artemis steered her away. "I believe I may have found what we are looking for."
Her hand flew to her throat. "The...the statue? You have found it? You have found Endymion?"
"I believe so. It resides in a museum just outside of Tokyo. We must make haste if we wish to make it before closing." He ushered Serenity and Mamoru out the back of the Museum of Antiquities, towards his car parked in the alleyway. Serenity touched the glossy surface in wonder, even as Mamoru opened the door to let her in.
"What a fascinating means of conveyance," she said, sliding into the car. "Artemis, I have another task for you. It is of the utmost importance."
"Whatever you wish, my lady, it will be done."
"I will need you to find Princess Venus. She always was the strongest of the soldiers. She will be their leader, so you will need to train her well. She will know what she has to do, and you must help her in it. I feel...I feel I will not awaken for some time, so Venus must be the Princess in my stead. A decoy, if you will. She has played her part before, she will be well-versed in being me."
"I will do it, my lady." Artemis punched the gas pedal, speeding towards the outskirts of Tokyo.
---
At dusk they reached it at last. It had been a mostly silent trip, fraught with nerves and tentative hope. They exited the car, climbing the wide concrete steps to the large, double doors at the entrance. The doors were locked; a sign stating their normal hours told them the museum had closed twenty minutes prior. They'd missed it.
"No!" A little sob rose out of Serenity's throat, which she muffled almost immediately. "No, we were...so, so close!"
Mamoru began pounding on the door. "Hello? Is anyone in there? Please, we need to get inside!" He pounded for long minutes to no avail."No, it can't end like this." His hands raked through his hair, despair coloring his words. "It can't...end."
There was no time left, and he knew it. Serenity could not wait until tomorrow. Her soul would leave the shell it was inhabiting, but her living body would be dead. There was no hope. All his life, hope and love had been cruelly snatched from him time and time again – to be given a new chance and once again have it slip through his fingers was unbearable.
"What are you doing out here? The museum is closed. You may return tomorrow, during normal business hours."
A black-haired woman had pulled around the back in a dark convertible, and was staring them down curiously.
Serenity gasped. "Luna?"
The woman turned, looking straight at Serenity, her eyes widening as she recognized her. "Pr...Princess?" She faltered. Her wide-eyed gaze searched the faces of the two men accompanying Serenity. "Artemis?" She gasped, then turned to Mamoru. "And is that…are you…could it be…?"
Serenity clutched her flowing skirts, a trembling smile on her lips as she approached the woman she had known so well in the past. "Luna, please, I beg of you. Can you reopen the museum?"
"Of...of course. Right away." He trembling fingers shut off the car, and she walked to the museum entrance on unsteady legs, fitting the key to the front door's lock. "There, it's open." She ushered them inside, switching on lights as she went.
"Where is the statue of Endymion?" Artemis asked Luna.
"Right up there." Luna pointed up a set of stairs. "On a dais right up those stairs." She ran trembling fingers through her hair nervously.
"Luna, I have a task for you," Serenity said. "Soon this soul will return to its new body, soon I will begin my life anew. I will need your protection, Luna. You know your duty."
Luna nodded. "I had...I had begun to think this day would never come," she said. "I had given up hope."
Serenity smiled. "There is always hope. Always."
Together they all climbed the stairs. A terrible sadness gripped Mamoru. Now she would go away. Now he would be alone again. It was a terrible feeling.
"Endymion," Serenity breathed as the statue came into view.
It was a master work. The carved marble man looked like he might take a breath at any moment, or swing his sharp sword downwards in a killing blow. He had a beautiful face, Mamoru's face, and his arm was curved like he was holding something against his chest, but there was nothing there.
Serenity touched Mamoru's face, and kissed his cheek. "Don't be sad," she said, as though she could see inside his soul. "We will meet again. I promise you this."
Slowly she stepped onto the marble dais, sliding into the arms of the statue, resting her cheek against his marble chest.
"Endymion," she breathed, closing her eyes.
At once a brilliant light filled the room. Mamoru shielded his eyes, waiting for the light to fade. When it did, he was alone in the room with just one marble statue, that of Endymion fearlessly protecting his Serenity, the marble from which the statue was carved perfect and unbroken. The two lovers were one, once again, finally. Luna and Artemis were no where to be found.
Cab fare back to Tokyo was ridiculously expensive, and by the time Mamoru made it back home he had almost managed to convince himself that he had dreamed up the whole adventure. But for the horrible sense of loss he felt and the small gold star-shaped locket in his pocket, he might've succeeded.
---
In Juuban district, for the first time in four days, a young girl opened her eyes. She surveyed her surroundings curiously, carefully removing the breathing mask that had been placed over her mouth. She sat up and yawned, stretching, wondering why she was in, of all places, a hospital.
Across the room, Ikuko opened her eyes, wondering what had startled her out of a sound sleep.
"Good morning, Mama," Usagi said cheerfully. Ikuko stifled a relieved sob, pushing the nurse's intercom button.
"She's awake. Oh, god, she's awake!" She cried. She took up her daughter's hand, resolving to never again badger her daughter about school or grades or anything. It was enough to just have her alive, awake. "Usagi," she whispered. "Oh, Usagi, are you feeling okay?"
"Of course I am, Mama." She yawned again. "But I had the strangest dream."
---
"I can't show this to Mama," Usagi sighed, crumpling up her test paper. "She'll kill me! I can't believe it. A thirty? It's really not fair of Haruna-sensei to give me a test," she pouted. "How could I study for a test when I was in a coma for four days? What am I going to do?" She wailed miserably.
She stopped in front of a jewelry store, pausing to admire the window display.
"Well, I guess there's no help for it," she murmured. "I'll just have to get rid of the evidence." Resolutely, she tossed the crumpled paper over her shoulder.
"Hey, what do I look like, a trash can? Watch where you're throwing things!" She heard the sound of the crumpled up paper being smoothed out and winced. "A thirty? Admirable, Odango Atama," the man remarked scathingly.
"Don't call me that!" She snapped, whirling to snatch the paper out of the man's hand. She was about to flounce away in a flurry of self-righteous indignation, but something made her pause to look back at the man she had unwittingly hit with her test paper. He had his hands crammed into the pockets of his jeans, and his hideous green jacket was perhaps the ugliest, most unfortunate-looking one she'd ever seen, but there was something oddly compelling about his handsome face. He looked familiar; she was sure she recognized him from somewhere but could not remember where.
He was staring at her with a mixture of shock and surprise etched on his face, as if he, too, recognized her.
Uncomfortable with his scrutiny, Usagi turned away in a huff, heading for the arcade on the corner.
Sufficiently recovered from his shock, Mamoru denied the thought that had flashed through his mind the instant he'd seen her face – surely this girl couldn't be…no, it was impossible. There had to be a hundred other women with Serenity's features. She had none of Serenity's ethereal fragility, none of her regal grace and charm.
"Hey!" He called after her. "You really should pay more attention in school!"
He smothered a laugh as she tripped over her own feet, almost catapulting herself into a passerby.
"What do you know?" She shot back, sticking out her tongue, nearly falling into a trashcan that she'd somehow not seen while shouting at him. As she disappeared into the arcade, Mamoru shook his head, amused at her childish antics, then turned around and headed for home – but a part of him hoped that he'd see the girl again, if only because she broke the monotony of his everyday life.
It would be some time before they would meet again; longer still until they would uncover the truth of their past lives and rediscover a love that had been fated for disaster in the past.
But that is another story entirely.
