Act Nine: Princess Serenity

"Tuxedo Kamen!" Sailor Moon cried out as he fell back into her arms. Tears were in her eyes. She didn't want to see this, to see him like this. She'd seen this before. Both of them, they were…

"Sailor… Moon…?" He asked weakly, trying his hardest to stay alive. His vision was blurred, but he could see her crying and reached up. "Such a… sad face… just like that time…" He could hear her voice in his mind, clear as day, crying out for them. Then he smiled.

"You're the one… in my dreams… Sailor Moon," Mamoru whispered. He coughed and blood came up. "My name is Endymion… I was reborn here, on Earth… to find Selene… but I found you… Serenity…"

He lost the battle and went limp in her arms. It happened again! It was happening all over again! And once again, there was nothing she could do! The mark on her chest opened and began to bleed, her very heart ached. She began to shriek.

She hugged him as tight as she possibly could, as if it would make him wake back up. As she shrieked, a ripple began to spread out from where she was and light began to pour forth, causing Goten to shield his eyes.

"Bunny!" Forcing himself to look, he gaped at what he saw. The Crescent Moon tiara began to chip and crack, before shattering like glass. Bits and pieces flew everywhere, and Goten caught a handful to keep it from pelting him. Beneath the tiara had been a crescent moon, just like Sailor V's!

Sailor V's moon faded away and was replaced by an orange stone tiara. Goten looked to her and his arm began to hurt, but he ignored it and looked back to Sailor Moon.

'I always knew this…! But why couldn't I remember it? Serenity Briefs is Princess Serenity!'

The final stone in her brooch lit up, and the entire thing bean to glow. The light melted away, leaving her in a beautiful, white dress that was becoming stained by blood from her chest wound. In her hand, the princess held the moon face watch she had promised to return to Mamoru, as the hands began to run backwards.

'Time is in reverse,' she thought to herself. 'I remember everything. The sad past, their deaths, my death, all of it.'

Sailor Mars put a hand to her forehead. "Now I remember… We four,"

"Are the guardians to the oldest heir to the throne," Jupiter realized.

"And we were reborn to protect her, and to restore the kingdom. The true princess is Serenity."

'I remember you now… my old friend, Endymion… my memories are coming back to me. Your eyes are the color, the exact color of the blue Earth…A long time ago, Selene fell in love with the image of the blue earth above us… and secretly with its crown prince, a man stronger and more wonderful than anyone. She always snuck away, and I always came after her…'

"We mustn't keep meeting like this…" Selene whispered as Serenity peered around a corner to see them.

"Why not?" Endymion asked, holding her close to him.

"Inhabitants of the Earth and the moon must not have contact with one another. That is God's law... I can't fall in love with you...but it's too late."

A war was being waged outside the Moon Castle. It was led by two women, one was a witch, and the other was a Sailor Senshi.

"Storm the gates!" cried Sailor Earth. "We will take the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou!" The witch turned to see Endymion standing protectively in front of both princesses.

"Prince, do you so betray your world?!" Beryl demanded "We fight for the prosperity of Earth!"

"Stand in our way, my prince, and I shall sever you in twain!" Sailor Earth warned, holding her sword.

"Stop this fighting, now! This war is pointless!" he insisted. Selene broke from her elder sister's grip and ran to Endymion, only for both to be killed by Beryl. Serenity started to scream.

"Selene! Endymion! No!"

"Is this your fate?" Serenity asked, holding him. "No! This can't be! Open your eyes! I still have so much to tell you! Endymion, my friend…" she whispered. Her tears began to flow.

The first one fell from her cheek and suspended in midair. Goten had to cover his eyes again and turn away, thanks to his Saiyan sight. The girls only needed to shield their eyes. The light was insane! It was so bright and pure! It felt like it could burn sins away in an instant! Every corner of Earth could see this light; it encircled the planet for an instant.

"I can see it!" Mercury cried, pointing to the center. "This light has crystallized the tear! It's a crystal!" she said. Goten turned to look. It was so small, but it was producing such a huge light.

"That crystal tear… purity born from grief… is it the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou?!" Sailor V demanded.

"Maboroshi no Ginzuishou…" Mercury whispered. The light intensified and began to heal all in range, though had no effect on the Prince.

"My barrier won't hold!" Kunzite shouted. He turned behind him to see Queen Beryl stand there. "My queen?!" Behind her was the shapeless form of Metallia.

"Haaa. A link has been made between the dimensions of our empire and the surface!? Strange power is flowing in from the surface! Our empire of darkness will be filled to overflowing with this holy light. It is in vain. I am becoming stronger. I can see it. This power... Is this the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou!?" Metallia demanded. Kunzite looked into the portal, and his eyes went wide.

"Jadeite!? Nephrite, Zoisite!? You've come back to life!? What is this light...?" Then he remembered, all at once.

"Have we been in a long sleep...? Energy is pouring in... What are we doing here...? We were reborn on the surface to find our master... Where is our master? Endymion-sama…"

"Prince Endymion! Lady Earth is right! We must stand against the Moon!" Kunzite cried out. The four of them stood together, looking at their master. "Sailor Earth is right! They spy on our every move! We must not tolerate this!" Endymion looked at them with anger. They had never seen him so mad.

"Who is she to speak such things to you?! I am your master, not she! She is below even you! I will not tolerate harsh actions against the Moon! Do you hear me?! You, all of you, are allowing yourselves to be manipulated by that thing!" Endymion roared.

Kunzite descended into the room where the bodies of his companions lay. That memory...The memory of their past lives ... Yes... reincarnated to find their master, Prince Endymion. But while the memories hadn't returned, they were ensnared once more by that thing. They sold themselves into slavery. And... their bodies were changed. "Everyone… you turned into stones. It didn't hold..."

He sighed, holding the Jade in his hands.

"The crystal!" Goten cried out. The light began to fade away and what looked to be a fragment of the core fell away, into Endymion's body.

"Now, Kunzite! Capture the princess and the crystal for the Dark Kingdom!" Beryl cried. Kunzite's eyes flashed and he returned. Jupiter and V got in his way and used their power to try and repel him. But in their haste, Serenity lost her grip on Endymion's hand. She watched him slip away.

"Endymion!" she screamed, trying to get to him. Both Mercury and Mars tried to hold her back, but she broke through and went after him. Before Goten could even power up, two figures in Sailor uniforms rushed towards the princess. Each grabbed an arm and flew off with her, kicking and screaming. Serenity tried kicking away and powering up, but it was useless.

"Let go! I have to get to him! Tuxedo Kamen! Mamoru! ENDYMION!"

They converged on Dende's Lookout. The two Senshi sat off on their own, while Princess Serenity cried into a pillow that Mr. Popo had provided for her.

The group could do little but sit down. They wouldn't force her to speak. She was too traumatized and heartbroken for that. But as the minutes passed, and it became obvious that she wouldn't stop crying, the Senshi with pink hair stood up and moved over to her. The halo over her head made it obvious she was dead, but she knelt down to Serenity like an old friend.

She reached out and pulled the princess into her arms to hug her.

"Sere, I'm so sorry," she said, letting the princess cry into her. "If we'd gotten there quicker-"

"We'd be dead." The Senshi in green, Sailor Earth, sneered. Her words didn't seem to touch the girl in pink, though.

"Sere, do you remember now? Maybe you don't… or just don't want to… but do you remember me? I am Princess Selene, your little sister," she said.

Serenity sat up, wiping at her now red eyes. "You're the woman from the masquerade. And, and you are that precious person."

Selene didn't seem to understand her words, but only nodded. "Yes. You always tried to protect me, even when we were children. I was four years younger than you, and you followed my every step. Even when we became teenagers, you would follow me down to Earth to protect me from the usurpers. But in the end-"

"I failed. They stormed the castle and you died." Serenity put her hand over her wound. Her dress was stained with blood.

"Everything crumbled to ashes. Happiness was a forgotten dream, and she couldn't save either of you," Earth continued.

"To think, Tuxedo Kamen was Endymion!" Luna breathed. "To think that this could happen."

Mars looked off into the distance. "It wasn't destroyed and just kept on living. The planet and its people are being targeted again. Without a doubt, it's the same thing that destroyed the Moon."

"The evil one, from what I know, was an enigma from the deepest reaches of the Sagittarius Zero Star," Mercury explained.

"We sealed it away!" V reminded.

"Then who broke the seal!" Jupiter shouted.

Earth just lazily looked over her shoulder to them. "The witch controls the entire Dark Kingdom for Metallia. She died and was reborn and was drawn there, where Metallia was waiting. She broke the seal, forty years ago."

"Then we're gonna find the Dark Kingdom!" Goten roared, standing. "They're doing these terrible things and I won't stand for them! I know my father wouldn't, neither would my brother, and Trunks wouldn't! They have a piece of the Ginzuishou! It went into Endymion and we can't let them have it!"

Serenity glanced down at the Crystal in her hands. 'I cried and produced the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou. It was shining so brightly, but now it's an ordinary glass ball.'

Before she could say anything, the loss of blood made her pass out in Selene's arms.

Dende provided a place for Serenity to recover for the night, and Goten called Trunks to say that Bunny was on the lookout with him, practicing some new sparring moves to impress her grandfather.

With that out of the way, he put his phone away and walked out to where Selene was staring up at the moon. "Okay, now I'd like to know if you know anything about that chest wound. It's connected somehow. I know it. It's connected to her being the princess, right?"

Selene looked up at him and smiled. Goten was taken aback by how young she looked. She couldn't have been much older than Bunny herself.

"Well, that's because this isn't the form Sere was meant to be born into," Selene explained. "Now how to put this…?"

"Your friend is her father. Her real one," Earth sighed. Goten turned to look behind him, where she was leaning against a pillar. A tail lazily waved from under her skirt, but he had no time to ask about it.

"Trunks' wife and daughter were killed."

"One of ours saved her soul. The Dark Kingdom knew she was the princess and wanted her soul. So we pulled it out. The body was lost and we almost gave up hope, but the only other option was to put her back in her true body. That mark is the scar from where she drove a poisonous blade through her own heart," Earth explained.

"Mr. Son, please understand," Selene begged. "We had no other option in this! We were desperate."

"Fine. One more question, though," he insisted. "What accent is that?"

"American," Selene explained. "I'm an American. My name is Kara."

"Where is it?" the man with white hair demanded, standing over Endymion's body. "I saw a fragment of the Ginzuishou enter his body!"

"Has it evaporated already?" Beryl asked. Endymion sat up, only to receive a blast from Beryl. "I have no use for you, then!" With that, his body began to melt away and

"NO!" Bunny screamed, sitting up in the spare bed of her basement, where she had locked herself away after coming home. She breathed hard for a few moments before realizing it was all a dream. She stood up and walked over to a mirror on her wall, wiping her eyes.

"Even in my sleep, I can't stop crying for my failure… ew… my eyes are as red as a rabbit's… they look like puffy mushrooms," she said in a hoarse voice, as her hair began to grow.

Back at Goten's home, Luna paced back and forth, going over the day's events in her head. Everything had gone terribly wrong! How could this have happened? Now she remembered what she was supposed to have gone.

She was Luna of Mau. She was advisor to the Queen, her position appointed by the Angel. When the kingdom fell, she and her companions were sent to Earth, while the court was to be reborn. Their friend woke first and was to protect Princess Selene from the Dark Kingdom, but had failed. Then Artemis was woken and discovered Sailor Venus, training her to be the leader.

Then it had been Luna's turn. Her only clue was the knowledge of a letter. She didn't know how she knew of the letter, but she knew of it. She searched for it, discovering it at Trunks' home after following Bunny home one day. She had stolen it and a line in Lunarian had allowed her to let Bunny transform, but in doing so, it sealed up her memories of Bunny being the Princess. Now Luna understood that it was security, in case the letter had fallen to the wrong hands.

Her job had been to train Bunny as the mythical Sailor Moon until she could be made aware of the truth of her existence. But then Bunny awoke in the worst of circumstance.

"I'm a terrible guardian. I failed."

"You're not a failure, Luna," Goten said, standing behind the cat with a sad look on his face. Luna just turned to look at him.

"If I had known that Tuxedo Kamen was Endymion," she insisted as Goten lifted her up to pet her. "Where are the others?"

"They went home a while ago. Kara and Sailor Earth are helping Artemis look for the path to the Dark Kingdom," he explained. Luna's ears drooped.

"How about Bunny?"

"Oh. Whoa. Hi there," Trunks said as he opened the door to see the girls and Goten standing outside. Ami's eyes went wide when she saw just who Bunny's father was.

"Is Bunny here?" Rei asked.

Trunks moved aside to let them in. "Yeah. She came home and just locked herself in the basement. She's still in there," he explained as they filed past.

Goten came in last and yelped as Trunks grabbed him and pinned him to the wall holding him up by the shirt. "YOU wouldn't happen to know WHY she's locked herself in there, WOULD YOU?" he asked through grit teeth.

An older man came in from the media room. "Trunks, put him down!"

"Why is Bunny acting like this? What happened!" Trunks demanded.

The girls were worried they were going to witness a fight, but Goten held his hands up in his defense, showing a small jewelry box.

"Not a clue," he lied. "I brought her a present, hoping it'd cheer her up."

Trunks dropped him and stepped back a little. "Damn it. Sorry, Gohan," he said, looking to the older man.

"It's okay. Just please don't kill my little brother." Gohan motioned for the girls to enter and they did. Luna hopped out of Ami's arms and ran to the back door, slipping out and off. "You must be Bunny's friends. I'm Son Gohan, her tutor. I can't get her to open the door, so maybe you can."

"It's okay Son-san," Ami said. "We'll do our best."

Goten went to knock on the door as Trunks and Gohan went back to the media room. He tapped on it a few times and it opened up to allow them in. Trunks hurried over, only to have the door shut in his face.

"Don't worry about it," Gohan assured. "She wants her friends. I've been a father longer than you, she'll tell you when she's ready."

Bunny followed everyone down the stairs. Her hair wasn't up in its Odango style, but was pulled back.

"What's wrong with your hair?" Goten asked, earning him an elbow to the gut by Minako.

"Goten-san!" she hissed.

"What? It's kind of unusual for it to be down! Unless she's at some party, it's always in her Odango style!"

As the two argued back and forth, Bunny reached up to pull her hair down, letting it spill everywhere. It hit the ground and piled there.

"I don't get it!" Bunny whimpered. "It just started growing and growing, and I couldn't let papa or Gohan see!"

She led them into the room by the stairs, which was set up to be a second bedroom. Rei looked around the entire basement. It had computers and video game consoles everywhere. She had all this and she still went to a public arcade?

Inside the room, Goten had rummaged around and managed to produce a hair brush and scissors. He passed them over to the girls and Minako began to put Bunny's hair back up.

"Your hair was really long in your previous life. You're probably reverting," Minako reasoned as Makoto began to cut it back down to a normal length.

"So I'm becoming someone different?" she asked, feeling her heart tighten. A jewelry box was thrust into her field of vision by Goten. Taking it, she popped it open and looked inside. It was a pair of earrings, blood red gems set in silver and gold.

"I don't know how I'm paying my bills this month, but I thought you might like this," he started. "I caught your old tiara when it busted up, and had the remains set as earrings for you."

Bunny smiled and went to put them in. "Thanks, Goten-oji."

Luna looked up at her. "Where is the Ginzuishou? Are you keeping it safe?"

Bunny nodded and crawled across the bed to grab a jewelry box. She pulled the crystal out and showed it to Luna.

"Yeah, but there's been no change. It's like a lump of glass." She put it back in the box and returned that to her nightstand.

"Didn't its core fall out and into Tuxedo Kamen?" Makoto asked. "Maybe that's the key to this. Think we should ask Selene?"

Bunny's eyes went wide as she heard that. "Tuxedo Kamen is in the Dark Kingdom, isn't he? We have to go after him!" In a fit akin to madness, she got up and grabbed Goten by the shoulders. "If we don't, his body will melt away and… and…!"

Goten reached up and slapped her across the face. Bunny's eyes went wide and she doubled over in a coughing fit. The scar in her chest had opened back up and her shirt began to stain with pink.

"You HIT HER?" Rei shouted.

"Seemed appropriate enough to me," he reasoned with a shrug. "Bunny, we're gonna find him. We'll bring him back, this isn't your fault."

"Princess, please stop crying!" Minako begged. "Cheer up, for us?"

Bunny straightened up and wiped her eyes.

'With Kara-neechan dead, I'm all that's left. I'm the only heir to the Moon Kingdom. I have to get it together.'

"So, if we wanna find out about the Dark Kingdom, and the secret of this crystal, what do we do?" Goten looked around as he spoke.

Luna cleared her throat. "Let's go to the Moon."

Everyone looked at her.

"Let's go to the place where the kingdom was, all of us. The princesses, the Senshi, even Goten. Let's go to learn of our past live, of the Ginzuishou and of the future."

"To the Moon!"