I do not own sailor moon, or it's characters. Hope you like the newest chapter things are starting to get interesting.
Rei pushed the doors of the mansion open, she brushed the wet droplets that had beaded on her shoulders, then handed her coat to the first person she saw. The man took it and bowed to her, he uttered a greeting then disappeared. Rei approached the stairs without hesitation, she was halfway up when Ami appeared before her.
"Where's my brother?"
"In his study," Ami said. "Rei have they…."
"We were informed on our way home and…..I was given a vision."
"A vision?"
"By the little demon, or by our…." Rei couldn't speak the words. "Is Cole here?"
"I'm not sure last I heard he was still at the apartment," Ami said.
"You excellency," a young women with auburn hair bowed to then, "The General arrived only an hour ago, he went directly to his room to feed and hasn't been seen since."
"Retrieve him, tell him to come to Darien's study we have things we need to discuss," she said. The young woman bowed again and disappeared, Rei turned back to Ami and was about to speak when another voice cut her off.
"You have seen the truth then Princess."
Rei turned and saw Hotaru standing at the bottom of the steps, Amara and Michelle behind her. "Who are you?"
"A seer who has come to help us, she claims that she can help us find Serenity," Ami told her.
"You've encountered the other one haven't you Princess, the one who aids us from their side," Hotaru said. Rei nodded, and the seer smiled, "You must tell them, all of them, and you must name her to us all" she said.
Ami nodded, "I'll find my brother."
"Your brother?"
Ami waved her hand in front of her dismissingly, "It's a long story, I'll explain later."
"Yes do so," Rei turned to head back down the steps and meet her husband as he walked through the door speaking with one of his underlings. She watched as he looked up at her, then glanced at the party of newcomers and froze. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the blonde member of the group, who was starting right back at him. Rei watched the interaction and hurried down the steps, "Jadeite?"
Jadeite didn't respond, he just continued to stare at the blonde until finally whispering, "Amara."
"It's been a long time Jadeite," she said with an awkward smile, "How have you been?"
"Well….yourself?"
"Fine," she turned to her companions, "I will be along soon, don't wait."
The other two women departed leaving Rei, Jadeite, and Amara. Rei stared at the other woman wondering her identity, Rei had never seen her before. "I had heard that you were married to the Princess."
"How would you have heard that?"
"Well we do watch, a Royal Wedding is not something that would have been overlooked," Amara said.
"Watch?" Rei raised her eyebrows, "Pardon my frankness but whom exactly are you?'
Amara looked at Jadeite, "He's never spoken of me?" Rei shook her head, "How cruel Jadeite I thought out of everyone you would at least try to keep my alive in memory."
"Hurt too much, made things more difficult," he said.
"Still….to forget me completely…that hurts, especially coming from you brother."
Rei jolted, "What?"
Amara bowed her head, "Jadeite is my older brother, I am his sister, though I seem to have been forgotten by him."
"You chose to live the life you do," he spat at her.
"I did, for the greater good I chose to live my life apart from the rest of the world, to protect Hotaru and to guard the history of our people," Amara said. "I do not regret my choice."
"Then I do not regret forgetting you," Jadeite said, before she could respond he had pushed past his wife and was ascending the stairs to the second level. Rei glanced at Amara and then followed her husband without a word to her.
"Jadeite?" she chased him down the hallway towards Darien's study, "Jadeite why didn't you tell me you had a sister?"
"Because she's dead to me," he said.
She could feel her husband's anger, "Jadeite wait!"
He turned and faced her his face full of fury, "Drop it Rei, she choose to walk away from our family in the middle of the War, she betrayed everything we stood for and has no qualms about doing it. She doesn't exist to me anymore so drop it!"
Rei watched as Jadeite disappeared into Darien's study and slammed the door behind him, he wanted to chase after him and ask him about everything, but she knew better. She would wait for everyone else before she entered the room.
He watched as she ran her delicate fingers over the tops of books and wandered amongst the library shelves. Her long hair was tied back, and the blue dress she wore stopped at her knees, she looked around curious and timid.
"I must credit your restraint little Prince, I would have thought that you would have forced the name of your dead wife upon her," said the demon.
"I took your warning to heart, I didn't want to fracture her mind and break the spell so soon after getting it right," he said staring at her. "She is so beautiful."
The demon glanced over at him and then back to Serena, "Has she experienced any longing for blood yet?"
"No, and she's been taking to human food very well, blackberries are her favorite," he smiled at her as she reached up and plucked a book from the shelf in front of her. She leaned against it and opened the cover.
The demon looked at him again, "Despite your new infatuation with her you do understand that there is still a war going on correct?"
"I am aware, and though I hate it more than anything else right now I must leave her," he said.
"I truly am surprised that in you obsession you would not take her with you," she said.
"If I were it could compromise her, I'm go to a place that she is familiar with, a place that I fear would wake her old self if I took her with me," he told her. "I'll be back in three days, Ashlee and Taiki will remain here with her, you have your orders stay away from her."
The demon smiled, "I will restrain myself from taunting her, however I cannot make promises for my other half she's been fighting my every moment, trying to escape and speak with her cousin."
"Keep her away at all costs if she undoes the spell…."
"Foolish child she cannot undo my spell on her own, it's much too powerful, now the only way for the spell to break is if Serenity herself breaks it," the demon said.
"Then we will have to ensure that she doesn't break it," he said. "No go away I want to be alone with Astra." He walked away from her without another word, she watched him with dark and damning eyes.
'You find this as sick as I do,' said her other self.
'I find this notion of love sick,' the demon responded.
'But also the notion of trying to recreate his dead wife in another,' said Sofie.
'I do not judge the obsession of other beings, what they do with freewill is their own choice,' the demon said.
'Merula you lie…..' she could feel Sofie smiling.
'Go back to your cage sight seer,' Merula snapped. She felt Sofie's soul retreating, but she could tell that she was gaining strength. It wouldn't be long until they would finally have to decide who would remain in this body, and who would be forced out.
Rei stood before the large group of people who had gathered in the conference room. Trista, Nephrite, Amara, Michelle, and Hotaru sat on one side, while Jadeite, Ami, Yaten, Knox, Lita, and Cole sat on the other side. Darien sat at the head of the table directly opposite Rei. She had gathered them all here because she had a message and a revelation, but now standing before them she was scared to speak.
"What is the meaning of this Rei," Darien snapped, he was impatient, there had been no news on Serenity's whereabouts and not one of the seers or clairvoyants could detect her.
Rei swallowed and then sat down, she inhaled a shaky breath. "When Jadeite and I were preparing to leave….I was visited by the…by the little Demon girl again."
"What! When?" Rei looked at up her husband, she had not told him of her vision, she had wanted to tell them all when they were together, to try and minimize the shock.
"When I had my attack on the tarmac," Rei said. She went silent trying to find the words to explain.
"What did she tell you your excellency?" asked Michelle. Rei looked up at the other woman, her eyes full of only support and pride, despite not knowing her Rei suddenly felt a warmth inside of her, a warmth that gave her courage.
"Yaten, you're here because a demon was lost right, a powerful demon who is belived to have been set free, you're here to observe and report back to the Demonti if you find anything out," Rei looked up at him.
He was glaring at her, "How do you know my mission?"
"The demon…well her other half told me," Rei said.
"Her other half?" asked Lita.
"Remember when I told you I felt that there were two side to her, the dark sinister side that I recognized as the Demon, and then….." her eyes flicked to Cole and then back down at her hands. "Then the other side of her which seemed more friendly to us."
"Yes…but what does that…"
"She revealed herself to me," Rei said. The room stilled and the tension rose, "Why?"
Rei looked up at Hotaru, "Why?" The girl repeated the question.
"She said I deserved to know the truth, then she showed me, all of it or all that she could anyways," Rei said. "Don't you already know?"
Hotaru shook her head, "The Demon blocks Trista and me from seeing inside of them, we know that there is someone within her who tries to help, but the Demon is strong and keeps us apart."
"I see…"
"She revealed herself to you Rei," said Darien.
Rei looked up at her brother, "Yes, she said she wanted to tell us that we can't give up on finding Serenity no matter what, we have to fight."
"An obvious statement," said Lita.
"But there was something about the way she said it, like it wasn't just finding her, like there was something else we were going to have to face….but she couldn't tell me."
"So who is it?" asked Ami.
Rei closed her eyes, "It's…..it's…"
"Is it Aunt Astrid?" Rei looked up at Yaten, who had leaned forward in his chair his eyes boring into her.
Rei shook her head, her eyes found Cole, who was staring down at the wooden table in defeat obviously lost in his thoughts. "It's Sofie."
Cole looked up and directly into her eyes, but it was Lita who spoke, "What? Sofie's dead. She's been dead since…."
Rei never broke eye contact with Cole, "She was wandering in limbo, said she couldn't move on because of the last vision she had before she died. She said that she had foreseen another threat and had to warn Serena about it. When the Demon was pulled from her cage and sealed in the human girl's body, Sofie attached herself to the Demon and was pulled into the body along with it. When they sealed the Demon inside they sealed Sofie. She's been trying to help us but because of their duel personas they fight back and forth for dominance and it drains them both. So far the Demon's been in control, but Sofie showed me that she's getting stronger…..she's planning to take control."
"This is ridiculous," said Lita standing, "You can't bring someone back from the dead like this…Rei are you sure that the demon wasn't just playing with you?"
Rei shook her head, "No she showed me things, visions of our past to prove to me, things only she would have known."
"Like what?" Cole finally spoke.
Rei looked at him then back down at the table, "Your wedding, the death of your daughter, how you blamed each other and yourselves, memories of Astrid and Serena during the war, memories of Sethaniel and…." She glanced up at Michelle. "And his friends…and I felt it, it was….it was her."
The room remained silent for several long moments before Cole stood and walked away without a word. "It seems that the news does not please him," said Hotaru.
"Would you be pleased if the love of your life had been ripped out of her resting place and was fighting a Demon constantly, if the person who you cared about the most was in your sight but not your grasp," said Knox. "Or are those emotions too complex for you seer?"
"Emotions are not complex Ronald Knox, beings are."
Astra stared at the book in her hand, a historical text from long ago, she read and reread the history of humanity, but for some reason it felt like it was missing something. She closed the book and put it on the table, she had a headache again, something that Seiya told her she would have, it was because of her coma.
She closed her eyes and thought, trying to remember something, trying to recall anything, there were flashes, whispers of voices, shadows, but nothing more than that. She folded her arms on the table and laid her head down, she couldn't recall anything, and Seiya had said many of their pictures and belongings had been lost in the fire. She scratched her head trying again to force something from her memory.
"If you strain yourself the Master will be quite upset." Astra turned around and saw Taiki staring back at her over her glasses. "Ashlee told me to come look in on you, see how you were feeling."
"I can't remember anything still if that's what you mean," she said. She turned away from him back to the stacks of books in front of her.
"what are you doing my Lady?"
"Trying to learn, trying to remember, or…I don't know, trying to remember something."
"You've only been awake for a few days now my Lady, don't try to strain yourself like I said before, you're brain will heal itself," he drew nearer to her.
"Yes I know Ashlee and Seiya have both said the same things, the coma only did so much," she repeated their words. "But Taiki, what…what if my memory never comes back what if it's gone for good?"
Taiki sat down across the table from her and studied her from behind his glasses, she squirmed under his gaze, she couldn't shake the feeling that he was staring through her and not at her. "If you don't remember you don't remember, that is all there is to be said."
"But I want to remember! I want to know who I was, where I came from!"
"Se…..Astra it's….sometimes it's better not to remember things, sometimes a fresh start, a new beginning is best."
"You talk as if there was something terrible in the past, as if I shouldn't try to dig it all up," she said.
"No, nothing terrible….but maybe something should remain in the past, look….forward towards the future that you've been given with the Master, and the opportunities you've been given."
Astra started at him, "I supposed." She grabbed another book and began flipping through it.
Taiki stared at the Vampire Queen, like this, with her memory gone and her identity erased she seemed harmless, like a true human female with vulnerabilities. But as she watched her he saw it, it was still in her body language, the way she sat perfectly straight in her chair, a sign of royal teaching. How she moved so gracefully, and somewhat faster then a normal human, how despite the demons spell, she had an unearthly glow in her eyes and from her skin.
Seiya could change her name and her memories, but Taiki saw her still as the Vampire Queen, she was still Serenity and as soon as Seiya realized that he no longer wanted her Taiki would be there to take her head.