Through Their Eyes
Interlude (Chapter 25)
By: trusuprise
Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.
"Let the world crumble around us…" Makoto's voice was a broken whisper as she remembered the memories that she knew were the beginning of the end of their time during the Silver Millennium.
Rei grunted, but said no more, because she knew better than any of them, even better than Minako, who had always been so smug in her knowledge of the past.
"There was nothing we could do to stop it." Minako's voice was raspy. Curled up on the couch, sitting as closely to Rei as possible without being in the other woman's lap, Minako pulled her knees close to her chest. The impending end of their past lives, although no easier to speak about, was at least safer territory than addressing the troubles in the relationships between their past life selves.
"Rei was right." Makoto's expression was stony. "We couldn't do anything to stop it then, but we were able to help Usagi defeat Metallia in this life."
"In this life," Rei said, "The host was strong enough to control both the light and the dark inside her. Usagi defeated Metallia, and although the light overwhelmed her in the end, it was Usagi's own purity that helped her to… reset the world."
"The ginzuishou," Ami whispered. "Beryl was a pawn. Metallia was only part of the equation. The ginzuishou… it was a curse. It was our enemy all along."
The smallest of smirks tugged at Minako's lips. "And yet Usagi defeated it."
"We were closer to her in this life." Rei said quietly. "We were a more effective team, and we helped her."
Minako opened her mouth, so many words hanging on the tip of her tongue. Had they not had their own struggles with one another in this time, too? Had they not, in some ways, been closer in the last life?"
Rei smirked, as though she had been able to read her commander's thoughts. "Our physical and emotional relationships in the past life brought some of us closer together, but they also caused deeper rifts of different kinds. Not only between us as senshi, but with Serenity herself. In many ways, we had more secrets and untold truths between us then than we did now."
Rei looked at Minako from the corner of her eye, and this time, she wondered if she really had read the other woman's thoughts, for she felt that they were thinking the exact same thing. Even without her past persona's memories at the time she had met Minako, the attraction between them had been clear, but if they had become closer all those years ago, would history have repeated itself? Would they be meeting in yet another 'next life' to start the same cycle all over again?
Or had Metallia's influence, unchecked by Serenity's lack of control in the past life, helped to foster and create the tensions between Serenity and her guardians during the Silver Millennium?
On the coffee table between the two couches, ice cubes in an empty glass shifted under their melting weight and clinked against one another loudly.
Makoto reached out and took the glass in her hand, holding it at its brim and spinning it slowly, the ice cubes sliding around the bottom of the glass. She sighed then, and looked around the room. Carefully avoiding making eye contact with any of her comrades, she inspected the room with a wistful expression.
"I could go for a stiff cup of coffee about now." She said.
Makoto had meant to alleviate some of the tension in the room, but her voice had sounded too desperate. Even now, the memories they had relived seemed too real, too fresh. Makoto tensed her hand into a fist as though the golden pendant of the Mati past-life Ami had given to her were still there. Ami looked at everything and everyone that wasn't Makoto. Rei and Minako shared sideways glances that couldn't quite be interpreted.
Makoto set the glass back on the table and then stood quickly, her movement abrupt and jarring. She stepped away from the couch and strode to the wall where she placed her hand on the smooth glass of a container of brightly colored candies. Funny that the candy machines and soda fountain hadn't aged with them, when all they wanted in the predawn hours of morning was coffee, or perhaps something stronger.
She turned to her friends, her expression a pinched frown. "Aren't we getting a little old for this? For secret bases and special powers and past lives?"
Minako tensed, her gaze uncertain over the tops of her knees where they were pulled to her chest. "No. I suppose this power never ages, and we'll always be those senshi at heart."
"And this place will stay as it is in case that power is ever needed again." Rei's quiet words were half question and half statement.
"Maa," Minako shrugged.
Suddenly, Ami shivered, her body trembling as another impending memory hit her. Makoto rushed back to the other end of the room and sat on the couch next to her, placing her hand over Ami's on the cushion.
Ami blinked her eyes open. Tears were pooling in their corners. "It's almost over," she said.
Makoto held Ami's hand tighter. "Maybe we should stop now. We-"
"No!" Ami cried. She caught her lip in between her teeth and colored at her sudden insistence. "No." She repeated more calmly. "I'm going to continue to remember this regardless, and I'd rather remember it with you." She turned to include Rei and Minako in her gaze. "All of you."
Ami squeezed back against Makoto's hand, her past life swirling with her present one, and when she felt the thin, metal band of Makoto's engagement ring against her fingertips, she couldn't help but feel betrayed.
Ami pulled her hand away, straightened herself, and prepared for the inevitable end of their past existence.
Preview, Chapter 26: Delivery from the Moon
Zoicite paused when his eye caught a small, folded piece of paper that stuck out from under the orgel's top. He leant down and pulled it free.
The note was short and penned in precise, yet artistic handwriting. He had only unfolded the paper halfway, and already, he had read it in its entirety.
[The orgel is not strong enough to sway her memories. We fear nothing is. Abort this mission. –Venus]
Zoicite crushed the piece of paper in his gloved fist. His teeth ground together as he threw it at the floor. He tossed his cape over his shoulder and strode back to the piano.
"If I can't sway her memories," he spat, "then I have to sway his."
O O O
"Serenity!" Ami shouted. "She's disappeared! She was right in front of me, and then-"
"Rei!" Minako barked. She turned to her second in command, startled to find that the Martian had already slipped into her senshi form and was already tapping into her senses; her brow creased, her eyes darting back and forth under her eyelids. Minako waited impatiently as Mars analyzed her spiritual powers.
The crimson warrior's eyes shot open. "She's activated the youma."
"Which ones?" Minako demanded.
"Both of them. The light and the dark."
Enveloped in a golden light, Minako became Venus. "Where are they?" she demanded. "I'll send damage control ahead of us."
Mars shook her head. "It's no use. They're on Earth."
Ami inserted herself between Venus and Mars. "How did she get to the surface? I was just with her!"
Mars frowned. "Her powers are increasing ten-fold."