Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor moon!
AN: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! for all the wonderful reviews so far, they have helped inspire me to write more. Enjoy!
Chapter 4
Serena woke up her wrist bruised and heavily throbbing with pain, but she immediately dismissed it and focused on what lay ahead that day, facing her past.
She would not use the Luna pen; she would go as she appeared. Her long hair put up in her trademark hairstyle. She wore a black dress that seemed to make her hair look more silver and her skin paler, but her blue eyes illuminated with wisdom. She wore black gloves to hide her throbbing hand.
She made her way over to her closet and pulled out a sealed box, carefully unlatching it she pulled out a delicate and faded paper rose. She remembered when a year before she became Sailor Moon, during a rehearsal for the school play she had tripped on her long dress and fell off the stage breaking her leg severely in several places. She had been miserable when they told her that she would have to stay in the hospital during her birthday in order to do surgery on her leg because of the severity of the break and that another girl would have to replace her in the play.
Though she and Sammy had their arguments and didn't get along much when they were kids. Sammy had felt bad for his sisters misfortune, so he carefully crafted in detail a beautiful paper rose and gave it to her before she went into surgery.
Afterward it had been many months of relearning how to walk and intense physical therapy to get her leg back to normal, but it was never easy for her, she had growth spurt in which seemed to throw off her carefully practiced balance making her clumsier and more prone to falling.
Then she was thrust into being the Champion of Justice with no experience from her past life in the silver millennium, she felt she had become a walking disaster rather than a graceful warrior like her other teammates. Her clumsiness ate on her confidence especially when the scouts would reprimand her for every misstep she made. After the Sailor Scouts had kicked her out of the group, she began to push herself in every aspect of herself and train so that she could be better.
She had treasured the simple gift of the paper rose that he had given her all of these years and now she wanted to take it back to him to show that she still cared and would never forget. She set the rose in a smaller box for her to carry with her.
The sun was out making the city look unnaturally beautiful, but the warmth of the sun and the glittering rays as they shone through the trees did not seem to cheer up the somber mood she was in. She took her time while she made her way to the plot of land where they were holding the funeral.
She was surprised at the number of people surrounding the flower covered casket. There were group of people huddled relatively close to the grave and assumed that that was Sammy's family. As she neared she felt the pressure of sadness press down on her, she noticed a large group of older people with their families that stood a little ways back in front of her from the main group.
She nearly froze when she heard a familiar reprimanding voice as they scolded a young teenager in their group. She gasped as she looked more closely at the group; it was the Sailor Scouts surrounded what looked like their families. To say that Serena was shocked at their appearance was an understatement; she stood frozen watching the scouts mingle together.
She had expected that like her, they would be cursed with youthfulness, but before her stood the scouts with no disguise no powers used to conceal themselves; they were old wrinkled grandmothers with grey hairs. At the moment she couldn't tell if she was overjoyed at the situation or disgusted that she was the only one cursed with youthfulness.
There were more important things to focus on at the moment and that was to meet and help comfort the remaining family connections to Sammy that she had. Gathering her courage as if she was to face the Negaverse head on she walked forward and did not even attempt to detour around the group of Scouts and their families.
"Excuse me," she muttered as she pushed through the group and moved forward with her head held high and her gaze straight ahead. She did not even flinch when she accidentally bumped into the back of a long grey haired Raye Hino and continued pushing her way through the group.
Raye scowled when she was bumped by a young teenager who pushed through the group without so much as an apology. She opened her mouth and turned to face the offending teenager when she saw long silver hair flowing from their back and then looking at the top of the sliver haired teenagers hair gasping and losing her breath to speak as she recognized the hairstyle of a former friend of long past. She thought Serena? It could not possibly be her, this girl was a young teenager, yet the girl had silvery hair. Her outburst caused silence to ripple from the group and the gaze of the group began following the path of the strange silver haired girl.
The Ami, Lita and Mina all equally as old as Raye tried to get a glimpse of the girls face since earlier they hardly paid her any attention. Being impatient and wanting a result she yelled out towards the girl, "Don't you have any respect for the elderly, you should apologize for being so pushy."
Narrowed deep blue eyes focused back on the group and the silver pigtails swayed gently as her head turned back at the group. Unfathomable knowledge seeped through her gaze towards the group and a melodic, authoritative voice flowed from the youthful face as she locked her gaze with Raye. "Do you not have any respect for the dead and their grieving family; do you always tend to steal the peace away when you clearly have no family relations or right to be here?"
All was silent with the group now behind her, Serena knew that she had probably been too harsh towards the Scouts but she did not regret her actions as she made her way over to the grieving family near the casket. She did not want to further contemplate as to why her former friends from so long ago would be at her brothers funeral.
She faced the oldest woman in the group who was now grieving over her husband. She grabbed the hand of the old woman and softened her gaze considerably to show her respect towards the older woman. She wasn't sure but she felt she had known the old woman before her as young girl that her brother had had a huge crush on many years ago, Reika was her name. Yes Serena thought, even though she is older it is the little girl Reika that she had met so long ago. "I am truly sorry for your loss; I am Rena Moon granddaughter of Samuels's older sister." She hated lying to the grieving old woman about her identity but who would believe by her youthful appearance that Sammy's older sister was standing before them.
Mina did not seem as shocked as Raye, Lita and Amy when they heard the silver haired girl's declaration of being Serena's granddaughter, but they wondered if the granddaughter was here, then where were Serena and the rest of her family? Was the former Sailor Scout living somewhere enjoying life, or was she dead?
The old woman smiled and gently squeezed Rena's hand, "Thank you for being here."
Rena gave a quick nod and let go of the woman's hand as she made her way closer to the casket and pulled out the small box she had been carrying. She pulled out the paper rose and gently placed it on top of the bouquet of flowers on the casket.
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she stood close to the casket, she whispered for the only one sleeping in front of her to hear, "I am so sorry for everything Sammy, please forgive me for not being there as I should have for you, mom and dad. I have always treasured the precious memories I had with you. I promise from now on to protect and watch over your family always, I won't let anything happen to them."
She glanced back towards the mourning family and then noticed how much the younger members in the family held resemblance to her brother with their sandy blond hair and their green eyes. Two young children caught her attention and her breath caught as she noticed how much they looked like mini versions of her parents. She held back a sob that was building in her throat.
Then something no one at the funeral anticipated, large spears of rock came hurling through the air, a smaller spear shot through the flowers on top of the casket sending the beautiful bouquet in a shattered mess into the air. Serena gasped when she watched as the delicate paper flower she had treasured all these years and placed with the flowers disintegrate into small shreds and float slowly to the ground where the rest of the bouquet lay scattered.
Thats it for this chapter. I was really surprised when Skye Darkwing guessed early on at how I had planned in the beginning before I posted the story for Rena to introduce her own self as Serena's "Grandaughter." Again thank you for all of the reviews, i really appreciated them. To come: A furious battle and memories revisited!
