(Note at the end. Read, Review, Enjoy)


Disclaimer: I do not, and never will own Sailor Moon. That is the blessed creation of Takeuchi-sama.

Disclaimer: Cover art is not mine


[dream]

["mental conversation"]

["dream attack"]


There had to be something to say about when a fierce, powerful warrior with the mind of ten generals found himself frightened by one little memory.

For what felt like days, Zoisite had been trying to work up the courage to broach what was clearly the next step in his journey to finally unraveling this mystery he called a life – to no avail. Indeed, all he had really done was float there in the empty expanse of the little corner of his mind that Metaria – hopefully – had no knowledge of, debating with himself over the pros and cons of actually taking that next step.

The pros were clear; it was the cons that kept nagging at him.

The Collapse was an event that he was only familiar with due to Beryl's gloating about their "great victory" in the Silver Millennium. Details of course hardly mattered to the arrogant self-proclaimed ruler, only that they had won and their enemies had all died.

That great victory however was a huge blank in his memories. It bothered him that such a critical event didn't register in his mind. Not a single image he could pull from it, an inkling of a feeling neither. It was maddening.

Part of him felt it was best to not put him through whatever hell he'd gone through under Beryl's thrall. Who knows how many friends, comrades and gods know who else he had ruthlessly cut down alongside his brainwashed brethren during the chaos.

But if he had to be honest, that was hardly the real cause of his trepidation. No, the real root of his hesitations lie with one person in particular, someone so crucial to his experience back then that he shuddered even just thinking of the name, and the face that came with it.

Mercury. What little he did remember put her as one of the Silver Line, a princess of a planet of her own namesake. And yet she was also a sailor senshi, a cunning and dangerous adversary – or was...is?

All of it was confusing at this point.

And it ate at him like some flesh eating parasite that she could hold the key to understanding it all.

But fear kept him where he was. Fear of learning who he had been, fear of what he had become, fear of how it all had ended... Fear of what it all had to do with her.

Never before had he wished so dearly for someone to invade his mindscape, if only so they could shove him in either direction and end this blasted apathetic state he was stuck in.

"What a sorry whelp I've become," he muttered to himself, arms crossed over his chest. "If Jadeite were here...well he'd kick me in my ass, and Nephrite would be no help at all, the bastard. And Kunzite would just shake his head while Endy..."

He sighed miserably.

"Why am I hesitating? Am I really scared of one girl? Admittedly a girl who can utilize water in all its aspects to bear down on her enemies, and freeze them... Gods, what am I getting into?"

He sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes, reaching under his uniform to pull out the shard of his namesake, its golden surface glittering up at him. "Screw it," he cursed and focused his power, allowing that same energy to suck him right back in as it had done so much already.


He breathed in, allowing the world to flow around him as he delicately measured each movement, aiming to make this as precise as-

"Hey, Zoi!"

The snail's pace he had been trying to attain was sped up almost instantly by that loud holler, and the drop of the potion he had painstakingly brewed since dawn spilled all over his table.

"Uh...did I interrupt something?" His fellow blond uttered, nervously.

"I'm going to put a bell on you one of these days," Zoisite grumbled before composing himself. Jadeite had always been the one to try and get a rise out of him, never maliciously of course.

But the Lord of the Eastern Lands always had been a devious little bastard.

"And maybe I'll let you, but right now we've got a problem: have you seen Endy anywhere?"

Zoisite gave a weary sigh, "You didn't pay attention at all during the briefing, did you? He's supposed to be meeting with the Council. Didn't Nephrite tell you?"

"Nope, and Endy isn't with those windbags either. Can't say I blame him; presumptous twats think they should be ruling the kingdom instead of the heir apparent."

"Like it or not, the Council-" And suddenly what Jadeite said prior registered with the ponytailed blond, "Wait, what do you mean he isn't with them?"

"Like I said, he isn't there – and I can't find Neph either."

"Kunzite?" Zoisite pressed, starting to sweat a bit.

Jadeite shrugged, "Dunno, he isn't at the Barracks training the grunts into the ground so there's that."

This isn't good, Zoisite thought.

With Endymion's parents ill, that left the Prince to look after the kingdom and if he was missing, then that didn't bode well for his standing with the Council.

"Can you sense him at all?"

Jadeite closed his eyes for a few moments but shook his head afterwards, "Not a damn thing. Must be concealing it."

Zoisite lifted an eyebrow at that admission, "And how would he know how to do that, Jadeite?"

The trickster had the decency to look abashed for a moment as he coughed into his fist, "Look, the point is we need to find him or it's our skins."

"Or yours in this case, since you taught him something he shouldn't even know about," Zoisite retorted with a scoff.

Jadeite sighed explosively, "Fine, now will you help me look for him?"

Zoisite had a wicked notion of making him sweat a bit more – gods knew he deserved it for the havoc he often caused, what with how he conducted himself in Court.

But Endymion going missing wasn't something they could just ignore. So alas, he would have to pull his teammate out of whatever grave he'd dug for himself – again.

"Fine, but you'll owe me after this."

Jadeite's face lit up like the brat who just discovered the cookie jar the grown ups had hidden, "And I'll repay it, count on it. Now come on, I think I've got an idea where our errant Prince scampered off to.

Figures, Zoisite groused mentally but allowed himself to be dragged off by his fellow blond.

Only minutes later they were at the edge of the Eastern Courtyard of the Golden Palace, dutifully ignoring the gawks from the regular soldiers lingering in the area.

Both the shittenou were far too busy with a sudden change of events to even consider giving their audience a glance.

Zoisite himself was blinking rapidly as his senses came alive with a foreign feeling that was neither familiar or terran in origin. What's more, this aura was powerful – it easily outclassed some of the court sorcerers, and just one of them took a hundred men to take down!

And it wasn't just one either...

"You sense it too, don't you?" Jadeite asked beside, unusually serious for once.

First thoughts led to that of a hostile force that had somehow managed to sneak past the city's defenses, but the way one of the auras was broadcasting its location put an end to those musings.

It wasn't an attack – or so he hoped anyways. If it was, their foes would already be causing more chaos than what was being exhibited currently.

But whatever it was made finding the Prince more critical than ever now.

"I just picked up Neph," Jadeite alerted him, eyes opening slowly. "He's fast catching up to one of those auras, but the other two are still moving towards the palace."

"Do they have anything to do with Endymion's disappearance?" Zoisite mused aloud.

Jadeite gazed into the distance, pensive. "Hard to say, but what I do know is that these aren't just infiltrators. Whatever's going on, we need to cut them off."

"We need to find the Prince, Jadeite," Zoisite argued with a glare.

"Endy's a big boy, Zoi. We all had the same kind of training so he'll be fine for a bit. We have to find out who these auras belong to. They're not Terran."

There was something unusually intense about Jadeite right now, but Zoisite couldn't help but worry about the prince. Training or not, if anything happened to Endymion on their watch then it was the gallows for all of them.

"Divide and conquer then," Zoisite suggested. "I'll look for the Prince while you track down that aura you're clearly so obsessed with."

"You can't say you aren't curious either, my friend," Jadeite retorted with a grin before he took off, leaving Zoisite to shake his head ruefully.

"Curiosity killed that cat," the blond muttered before heading off into the surrounding forest. The best place to start looking would be to check the few spots Endymion had snuck them out to during their youth, and if he wasn't there...

Cross that bridge when we get to it, he thought decisively before focusing himself.


For the first time, Mercury found herself both cursing and blessing her princess for her impulses. Cursing her because of how dangerous and foolish it was to go running amok on a planet that was expressly forbidden to them; and blessing for allowing her this opportunity to get a firsthand experience of what such a forbidden world was really like.

So far, she was floored.

The sheer environment she had landed in was almost picturesque, with perfectly trimmed oak trees that seemed to form a straight path through the forest, and past rushing streams of the clearest rivers. Flora and fauna of all types surrounded her, some seeming straight out of storybooks while others she hadn't even known existed.

Somehow, this felt like hallowed ground to her. It was a strange feeling since the only repeat of such feeling was when she bore witness to the Silver Crystal of the Moon Kingdom. It was difficult to describe, really.

Once again she had to remind herself that she was here for Serenity and only that, which pained her scientific heart in some ways. But she pressed on nonetheless, eventually coming across a crystal clear lake that opened up and provided and spectacular vista of a large golden palace-like structure in the distance.

And the capital of Earth no less, she groused at their luck. I have to find her, and quickly.

She glanced at the lake, quickly deciding to simply walk across it. Her powers allowed such a feat since she could mold the water's state to support her weight, creating a veritable bridge across any kind of body of water.

Her boots created ripples across the surface with each footfall, but she pressed on, soon breaking into a run to the other side. But when she was halfway across the lake, a geyser of lake water exploded skyward, forcing her to leap backwards.

From it, a large fish-like creature appeared, one with a terrifying visage of beady eyes, rows of dagger-like teeth and two scaly appendages that acted as arms. It screeched at her, clearly outraged at her disturbance of its domain.

This was a pain. If she used her attacks here she might be able to kill it, but it would also give away her presence to those of this planet. She hoped to avoid that for now, so she'd have to use her own influence over water itself.

"Out of my way, fiend!" she shouted, and summoned the lake water to her command. With another shout, she flung her arms forward, sending a twin waves of water rushing at the creature who bore them both with a cry of pain. But as she prepared to finish it, it quickly dove back into the lake and out of sight. "Blast..." she grumbled, using her scanner to search for any sign of it to no avail.

Suddenly, she felt a surge from beneath her own feet and jumped on instinct, narrowly avoiding being fish food for this beast. Its teeth glistened with the rays of the sun, showcasing just how sharp they really were.

One of the arms of the beast lunged for her at the last second, and she swung her arm across her body, proverbially backhanding the creature with a whip of water that knocked it back into the lake but it quickly resurfaced, glaring at her.

"Vile creature," she hissed, landing upon the surface once more. She didn't have time to deal with this! She threw her hand down and caused a geyser of her own, splitting the waves into three separate pieces that she hardened with her powers. "Take this!" With a windmill motion, she hurled the ice boulders at the beast, but was shocked to see it not only take them, but smash the boulders with a few punches of its arms.

Its reaction time is quite impressive, she admitted grudgingly before a wicked idea popped into her mind. But it needs to see me for it to work, in which case...

As the creature let out a roar and charged her again, she waved her arm to the side, causing a wave of water to spout up, then swung her arm at the approaching creature. The waves were sent forward, but midflight, they hardened into needle-like icicles that struck home in the creature's eyeballs, blinding it.

Mercury allowed herself a triumphant smirk as it squealed in agony before vanishing under the waves, the surface of the lake now tainted by the blood that had seeped out from her target's wounds. She panted slightly from the exertion, relieved that the duel had come to an end.

Satisfied that her battle was over, she strode confidently across the lake expecting no more hurdles for her to jump through.

But the second she set foot on the other side of the lake, her senses flared once more as a geyser of water erupted behind her and a familiar screech breached her ear drums. Before she could roll out of the way, she felt herself grabbed and plucked from the ground, brought towards the face of the creature...with two undamaged eyes.

Impossible! I hit both of them!

She couldn't help the pang of fear that jolted through her as the creature hissed menacingly at her and opened its maw, aiming to eat her...

Just then, a powerful gust of wind flew into them, not only knocking her free but launching the beast back into the lake far from shore.

Mercury landed on the ground in an undignified heap, swallowing hard as she collected herself. Beside her, a set of pristine white boots came into view, followed by a dulcet voice.

"Are you-?"

Whatever the man was about to say was cut off as the beast once again shot from lake, screeching indignantly at them as it lunged toward them aiming to swallow them whole.

Mercury allowed furious emotions take hold and familiar energies surged through her as she rose up, glaring at the quickly approaching danger and snarled, "Shine Aqua Illusion!" The wave of magically-enchanced water surged forth and struck the beast, this time freezing it solid in place though it didn't fall. In seconds, cracks spider-webbed across the surface before the sound of glass breaking heralded the frozen beast shattering into pieces, its remains plopping into the lake like raindrops from a recently passed storm.

That sudden rush of energy soon left her, and she turned back to find a blond haired young man garbed in some type of uniform standing there, his eyes wide. There were many things that she should've said, but the only thing that escaped her lips was:

"...I detest fish."

And then exhaustion claimed her, along with the accompanying darkness.

Two pairs of blue eyes shot open as their owner sat up in bed, chest heaving. Ami breathed hard as she struggled to remember where she was...who she was, before calming down. "A dream," she realized with a soft chuckle. But that smile was soon wiped away as she recalled the contents of it, and who ended up appearing at the last second. "Was that my first meeting with him?"

It made sense. Bits and pieces of her past life had been coming back to her over the last few weeks, and it seemed only right for that train to eventually lead to her encounter with the Shittenou. And he had been the first one she met, too.

Her cheeks warmed slightly as her thoughts began to run rampant.

What an unsightly mess I must've been to him! she thought with a forlorn sigh, somehow feeling embarrassed despite it being another lifetime. Even if it seems silly, I wish I knew what his thoughts were of that...

"Gaea above!" Zoisite breathed as the memory finally relinquished its hold on him. His eyes were wide with amazement, both in what he learned and just what he'd felt during it.

His first meeting with Mercury... He hadn't really thought of how they'd actually met, only that it had to have been at a point that would've been impactful.

And it was...

For the first time since coming to coherence of himself, Zoisite felt...well, on edge was putting it mildly with thoughts of the blue-haired warrior. Because that's the only description he had for her; anything else would be considered an insult of the highest magnitude.

Seeing her best a Lagoon Leviathan, a creature so fearsome it gave the shittenou trouble, singlehandedly was something not easily dismissed. He'd realized she had been quite powerful in the past life, but never on the likes of someone like say her fellow senshi.

But now all doubts were permanently erased from his mind as far as he was concerned.

Now there was a more concerning matter...namely his feelings during that scuffle.

In his memory, he had already checked two of the three areas Endymion liked to frequent to get away from his duties, but the brief surge of an aura he hadn't detected before drew him instantly.

The source of it was the blue-haired senshi, and what he witnessed from her was both brutal and mesmerizing. He could now see why the people of the human world considered the senshi heroes; even untrained as they were, they had the capability to become larger than life individuals, and would determine the fate of this world. To see them in action was nothing short of astounding, spell-binding in his case.

And he would freely admit that she was...beautiful to him. Not like the other senshi, but she herself called to him in a way he didn't fully understand yet.

But the whole endeavor had proved one thing: she was important to him, and represented the key to learning who he had been, perhaps what they'd experienced together.

Suddenly eager to learn more, almost rabid with the idea of it. If he could learn more of who he had been, maybe he could tap into some sort of ancient knowledge, old teachings that might help him free himself of Metaria and the Dark Kingdom.

But fate had other plans.

Zoisite felt that all too familiar shift and quickly strove to conceal himself, locking his essence inside a carefully shielded bubble of thought that the Metaria-controlled Zoisite wouldn't sense. And as he saw "his" eyes open, he felt a inexplicable dread that he couldn't put into words.

What was about to happen?


(Writer's block hit me like a bus running a stop sign in a school zone. Nevertheless, I think I have a basic idea of where I want things to pan out for the next few chapters. Although I must admit I'm embarrassed to have forgotten about the plot devices I had set up in the last two stories, namely that of the Soul Shards. With things how they are now, I'll edit accordingly and say this: even though for the girls that have regained their shards, there are still secrets to their powers and lives they have yet to unlock, hence the purpose of Metaria's "seers". The girls' past selves will help with that. Now that we've gotten the ball rolling with these two dorks, we'll check in on the others and see how they're doing, particularly Usagi and Minako. Look forward to it!)