Back in the real world, the Sailor Scouts, except for Serena, fainted from the strength of the memories and the power they had just received. But, they were still fighting the droids. With a sub-conscious move, the four sent a blast of power towards the droids that weakened them severely. With their energies waned, the droids regrouped and disappeared. The girls detransformed from their princess dresses to their regular clothes in a protective move to keep their identities a secret.
Serena detransformed back into Sailor Moon and slumped to her knees, shaking with guilt and grief. She'd tried to keep the painful memories of their last moments on the Moon Kingdom away from them so they wouldn't have to bear the pain that she did when she got hers back. She swore that she was going to protect them from that pain and she had failed. That thought unearthed her completely, leaving her weary and guilt-stricken.
She walked over to Raye, the closest one to her, and almost broke down into tears. The look on Raye's face was a painful one, like she was reliving something that she would gladly forget. Raye was pale, which looked unusual on her with her natural dark skin and Serena thought she looked dead. In a blind moment of panic, Serena pulled something out of her sub-dimensional pocket: a cell phone. Serena was glad that her mother had given it to her in the case of an emergency. This was an emergency of which a cell phone was required.
Opening it, she called 911 and waited for the operator to answer.
When she heard the voice on the other end of the phone, asking her to state her emergency, Serena said, "Yes, I'm at the park. There was a monster attack and my friends got hurt. Could you please send an ambulance down? I can't wake them up." Serena could hear the tears in her own voice. She zoned out for a moment until she realized that she had missed what the operator said.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Serena said.
"Where are you?" the operator asked. Serena told the operator to the best of her ability and when she heard the voice say that the ambulance was on its way, she sighed with relief and hung up the phone. Placing the phone back in her sub-dimensional pocket, she went to check on the rest of the scouts, who were lying unconscious on the ground.
Serena reluctantly checked for a pulse on each of the girls, deathly afraid that she wasn't going to find one. But when she felt the pulses of the scouts beating hard and regularly through their veins, she let out a sigh of relief. At least they didn't die because they got their memories back.
Although Serena didn't know how she knew, she was positive that the girls got their memories back, but they would be fuzzy for a while. It's like she could feel the torment that their souls were in and it was ripping her apart. It was tearing at the thin hold that she had on her emotions. She was determined not to cry; she was going to be strong for them until she knew they were going to be all right.
She heard the shrill of the ambulance's siren and saw it pull up in front of the park. Serena smiled slightly; the operator had understood her directions well enough to get the ambulance to the right location. Serena started to panic as the medics left the ambulance. She figured that having Sailor Moon at the scene with 4 human girls was not the best idea; it would cause suspicion.
She slid into the bushes as the paramedics approached the girls. The paramedics looked around the area, keeping an eye out for the girl that had called for the ambulance. When they realized that they weren't going to find her, the picked up the girls one by one and placed them on a gurney, loading them up into the ambulance and taking them off to the hospital.
As the ambulance disappeared from sight, Serena, still as Sailor Moon, slid out of the bushes, knowing that her friends would be all right. Physically anyway. She knew that the emotional scars that they received from getting their memories back would take a long time to heal.
Still shaking from the situation, she looked for something helpful to do that would get her mind off of what had happened.
"I know. I'll go get our stuff that we left back where we transformed. They would like that, especially Ami. She would hate it if her bookbag was missing with all her books in it. That's what I'll go do," Serena said, trying to fool herself that by doing this, she would be doing something helpful instead of trying to distract herself from her emotions.
She half walked, half ran to where their stuff was carelessly dropped on the ground. She slowly knelt down and picked up her bookbag, but held it at a distance from her when something on it caught her eye. It was a small keychain in the shape of a pink bunny. Serena's eyes stung with tears as she remembered the day she got it. Ami had gotten it for her, saying that she saw it when she was out shopping for her mother and said that it reminded her of Serena. Although it wasn't much, Ami said that she had to get it for her.
Tears came to her eyes as she remembered when Ami gave it to her. The small gift lifted her spirits because although it was small, the gift came from the heart. Looking at the keychain and remembering the feelings that it brought when she received it was too much for her emotions to handle. The precious hold that Serena had on her tears was lost and in the middle of the street, still as Sailor Moon, she began to cry.
***
The Ronin Warriors, still in their school uniforms, were walking home talking about the prank that Kento had pulled on Cye earlier that lunch hour. They were in the middle of laughing about Cye's reaction, when Sage's sharp ears picked up a sound.
"You guys, be quiet. I hear something." The seriousness in Sage's voice shut up all the other guys and when they were silent, they were able to hear the same thing that Sage heard and it wasn't happy.
The sound they heard was of a girl sobbing heart-wrenching tears of pain. With panicked looks at each other, they rushed off towards the depressing sound only to be stopped in their tracks. Not 10 feet away from them was Sailor Moon, huddled over on the ground, holding herself and sobbing loudly.
Ryo took a step forward and said, "Sailor Moon? Are you ok?" Serena's ears perked up at Ryo's voice. Ah, so the Ronin Warriors have found me.
Serena never told anyone, but she had known about the Ronin Warriors since she got her memories back and she had known that the 5 guys standing in front of her were the Ronin Warriors when she first saw them. When Serena, or Sailor Moon to the guys, hadn't responded, Ryo took another step forward, only to stop walking when Serena said in a quiet voice, "It's all my fault."
"What's all your fault?" Cye asked.
Serena looked up at them and the guys shivered at the look in her eyes. Her eyes held such sadness and pain for one so young, although she didn't look much younger than them; it was obvious that she had been through a lot.
"This is all my fault. My friends are hurt because I failed to protect them. And the wounds that they have received go deeper than physical."
"Um, no offense Sailor Moon, but what are you talking about?" Kento inquired.
Serena stood up slowly and looked at each one of them before she started to tell her tale.
"It all started on the Moon Kingdom 1000 years ago. When my mother, the Queen of the Silver Millennium and the Moon, Queen Serenity, realized that the other Sailor Scouts weren't enough to protect the royal family, namely my mother and I, we brought in my cousin and his four guards, all with special powers of their own, up to the moon to help the Sailor Scouts protect the royal family.
"I was so excited. I could see my cousin and his fiancée.
"But the Scouts were insulted. They felt that we thought that they weren't strong enough to protect me. So, when my cousin and his guards came, the Scouts welcomed them with less than open arms. But they didn't know they would fall in love. It was something that no one saw, but we didn't object. They were so in love, it brought such happiness to the Moon Kingdom, having 6 couples so very deep in love.
"Everything was happy. Until the day when Queen Beryl, ruler of the Negaverse and all that is evil, attacked the Moon Kingdom. Her four evil generals, who had previously been good and involved romantically with the Scouts, captured the Scouts and their lovers, forcing the Scouts to watch their lovers die for betraying them. My Scouts watched their lovers die."
Serena paused dramatically and looked up at them with a hard look in her eyes that chilled the Ronin Warriors to the bone.
"They watched you die. They looked on, bound by an energy field, as their ex-lovers slowly drained your lives away, not able to do anything about it. They died too, from heartache and the physical pain they received from the generals. So my mother, in an attempt to preserve the future, sent us all 1000 years into the future in hopes that we would live normal lives and meet up again.
"When I got my memories back about being the Moon Princess, I remembered you 5 and what happened to the Scouts in the last moments of their lives. So, to prevent them from the pain of their memories, I used the Silver Crystal to keep them from them.
"But today, during a battle, they used too much power to be contained in their Sailor Scout form and reverted to the state where they could handle that much power. They turned into the princesses of their planets and with that came all the memories. I tried to stop it, but it was too late."
Serena paused to draw in a shaky breath. As she closed her eyes to calm herself down, the Ronin Warriors felt sympathy for this girl standing in front of them. Opening her eyes, Serena continued.
"They had gained their memories back and there was nothing I could do but stand back and watch their souls be ripped apart." Tears had started dripping down her face again; the Ronin Warriors felt a great sadness. She had been through death and pain much more intensely than they had or probably ever would.
But, however convincing her story was, they had no proof that she was telling the truth.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Rowen asked suspiciously.
"Because, I know all about you, Rowen of the Strata," Serena said, trying valiantly to get her tears under control. She heard all the others gasp and Rowen just stared at her, eyes widened in shock. She gave a small smile at their shock and continued down the line of Ronin Warriors.
"I know all of you. Kento of Hardrock, Cye of Torrent, Sage of Halo, and Ryo of Wildfire. Oh, Ryo." Serena gave Ryo a tender smile.
"My cousin. I've missed you. I remember watching you die. When Mia was killed by Beryl on the Moon, you threw yourself head first into the battle, but only to get yourself killed." Serena sniffed loudly as tears came streaming down her face.
In a shaky voice, clouded with tears, she said, "I held your hand as you died, only to get pulled away by Prince Endymion, who was trying so hard to protect me. But, nothing ended well that day. We all died, but luckily, we're here today."
Suddenly, someone burst through the bushes.
"Sailor Moon?" Serena looked over to see Tuxedo Mask, or Darien to her, rushing towards her. He scooped her up into his arms and hugged her close to him as she cried.
"What happened? I could feel your pain all the way from home. So I got over here as fast I could. Tell me, what happened?"
"They got their memories of the Moon Kingdom back. The ones I was trying so hard to keep from them. The ones of watching the Ronin Warriors die."
"Oh God," Darien said, "Are they all right?"
"They will be. They're in the hospital," Serena whispered. Darien moved to take her away, but Serena stopped him.
"What is it?" he asked her.
"Their stuff. We have to get their stuff. That's what I came back here for." Serena hopped out of Darien's arms weakly and scooped up the Scouts book bags. Darien took three from her hand and put his other arm around her waist as they began to walk away.
Serena stopped walking and turned around to face the Ronin Warriors. Giving them a haunting smile, she said, "I'll see you guys in a couple of days." She continued to walk away with Darien, leaving the guys watching with amazement etched on their faces.
As the two disappeared from sight, Sage said, "Wow, that is a lot to take in."
"We were alive 1000 years ago?" Cye asked.
"And on the moon?" Kento added.
"I think she's a little off, if you ask me," Cye said.
"She can't be, she knew our names and Mia's. She has to be telling the truth. Plus, she knew that we were the Ronin Warriors. No one knows except for us, Mia, and Yuli," Rowen rationalized.
"But her story. It sounded so happy. Yet so sad. I mean, imagining watching the people you love die. That has to be harsh," Ryo said gruffly.
"Yeah," the guys agreed.
Their thoughts weighed down with depression, they made their way home, wondering more than ever who Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts were, especially considering Sailor Moon said that she would see them in a couple of days. But as they walked, they got no answers, only more questions.
***
The farther Serena and Darien got from the Ronin Warriors and the farther they walked, the more tired Serena got. Darien looked down at his love with worry and compassion. She's so tired. I wonder if she can make it home.
Serena, who almost read his thoughts said, "I have to go to the hospital. I have to see them." Looking up at his worried expression, she said, "Don't worry. I can make it. Just let me detransform so I can even go to the hospital." They pulled off the road into a grove of trees where they detransformed. As Serena detransformed, she almost collapsed into Darien's arms.
As he held her, he said, "You're just lucky my car is around here somewhere, or else you wouldn't be going to the hospital to see them."
After a few minutes of searching for his car, Darien finally found it, and put Serena, who was still in his arms, in the passenger seat and the Scouts' stuff in the back. Getting in the driver's side, he turned on the engine and made his was towards the hospital, asking Serena for directions, who answered absently. When they pulled up in front of the hospital, Serena snapped to attention and flew out of the car, Darien a couple of steps behind her. Serena practically ran into the hospital and up to the front desk.
Tapping her fingers on the counter, Serena asked the lady at the front desk, "Excuse me, but did 4 girls just come into the hospital from the park?"
The lady at the front desk looked up and said, "Yes, 4 unidentified girls came in just a minute ago. Why, do you know them?"
"Yes, they're friends of mine."
"Then, would you mind giving us information on them? We don't know who they are and we can't do anything for them until we know."
Serena nodded and said, "Sure. Hey Darien, could you get the girls' ID cards and social security cards out of their bags for the nice lady?"
"Sure," Darien said before taking off to the car. Serena turned back to the lady and said,
"Well, could I see them?"
"As soon as I get their names and enter them into the computer, I'll tell you where your friends are."
After a couple minutes of silence, Darien came in carrying a hand full of cards. The nurse behind the desk looked at the set of them and entered the information into the computer. Serena was nervously fidgeting as she waited for the nurse to finish with the computer.
"There we go," the nurse said as she handed Serena the cards.
Serena handed Darien the cards, which he put in his pocket, as Serena said, "Well?"
"You're friends are on the second floor in rooms 46 and 47."
Serena took off and called over her shoulder, "Thank you."
She and Darien reached the elevator and Serena jabbed the button, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for the elevator to reach the bottom. The door slowly opened and Darien and Serena stepped into the elevator. Darien pressed the button for the 2nd floor and the elevator doors closed and with a jerk, the elevator was taking them up to the second floor.
As soon as the elevator stopped and the door opened, Serena burst out into the hallway and began looking frantically for rooms 46 and 47. When she found room 46, she looked across the hallway and found room 47. Breathing in a sigh of relief, she opened the door for room 46 slowly with Darien standing behind her. Serena walked into the room and found Raye and Ami on beds that were facing each other. Serena walked over to Raye and swallowed down tears of pain and guilt. This is all my fault. If I were better at protecting them, they wouldn't be in the hospital.
Carefully, Serena reached over and grabbed Raye's hand. Raye unconsciously closed her hand around Serena's and Serena allowed a couple of tears to escape from her eyes.
"Oh God, Raye, can you wake up, please, and tell me you're all right?" As if to reassure Serena that she was all right, Raye opened her eyes and looked at her.
"Serena?"
"Yes Raye, I'm so glad you're ok."
With pain in her eyes, Raye said, "Is it true?"
Serena could hear how weak her voice was and said, "What do you remember?"
"I remember being tied up, I remember Jedite, and I remember him killing the man I love."
"Do you remember what the guy looked like?"
Raye searched her memory and said, "No, I don't. In my memories, he's all fuzzy." Serena breathed an internal sigh of relief. It meant less explaining for her to do later of something that she really didn't want to explain.
"But, is it true?" Raye asked again, her voice quavering with unshed tears. Serena looked at her regretfully and nodded slightly. Tears started to stream down Raye's face and soon, she was crying.
Serena looked at the raven-haired girl on the bed with surprise. Raye was the strongest person she knew and she never cried. Serena was almost unsure on how to handle a crying Raye. What she did was sit Raye up and gather her in her arms and comfort her as she cried.
Raye clutched Serena as the pain of her memories washed over her. Raye was glad that she didn't remember exactly who it was that she watched die. What if it was someone she knew and she had to face that person? She couldn't handle it.
Raye's tears calmed down eventually and when they did, Serena looked over to see Ami sitting up. Leaving Raye's side, she went over to Ami and put her arms around her. Ami, who was still stunned from her memories, wrapped her arms around Serena as well, letting only a few tears escape her eyes.
"Oh Ames, I'm so glad you're alright. Are you going to be ok?"
"Aside from the painful new memories of the Silver Millennium, I think I'll be ok in a few days. Don't worry Serena," Ami said in response to the worry etched on Serena's face.
"Well, I worry when my friends are in pain, you know?"
"Well, I think you better go check on Lita and Mina, see how they're doing." Serena nodded and went across the hallway to find both Lita and Mina sitting up in their beds.
She went over to Lita first and put a hand on her shoulder as Lita's memories came back.
"Are you alright, Lita?"
"Yeah, I just wish that Nephrite was still alive so I could pound his ass."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, but you're going to be ok with it?"
"I'll live," Lita said quietly.
"Good." Serena gave Lita a quick hug and then went over to Mina, who had a rather pained expression on her face.
"Are you ok, Mina?"
"What happened Serena? In the last moments of the Silver Millennium, what happened?"
"I don't know," Serena lied, "I was busy dealing with Darien and Queen Beryl. That's all I remember."
Serena hated doing it, but she had to lie. If the Scouts knew that she knew anything, they would demand that she tell them everything she knew and she couldn't do that.
"But, you are going to be ok?"
"I'll live," Mina said ruefully. Letting go of a sigh of relief, Serena slumped into the chair and almost fell asleep when Darien came in.
"What is it Darien?" Serena asked, her voice sounding weak and tired.
"I'm here to tell you that the doctors said that now that the girls are awake, they can go home as soon as they make sure the girls are all right."
"That's great, Darien," Serena said, while yawning. Darien shook his head at her and went over to pick her up.
Looking at Mina, he said, "I'm taking her home. I'll come back to get you guys afterwards, ok?"
"Sure thing, Darien," Mina said as she watched Darien carry Serena out of the room.
When they disappeared from sight, Mina thought, I hope we'll all be ok. Or else, the pain will consume us.
Serena detransformed back into Sailor Moon and slumped to her knees, shaking with guilt and grief. She'd tried to keep the painful memories of their last moments on the Moon Kingdom away from them so they wouldn't have to bear the pain that she did when she got hers back. She swore that she was going to protect them from that pain and she had failed. That thought unearthed her completely, leaving her weary and guilt-stricken.
She walked over to Raye, the closest one to her, and almost broke down into tears. The look on Raye's face was a painful one, like she was reliving something that she would gladly forget. Raye was pale, which looked unusual on her with her natural dark skin and Serena thought she looked dead. In a blind moment of panic, Serena pulled something out of her sub-dimensional pocket: a cell phone. Serena was glad that her mother had given it to her in the case of an emergency. This was an emergency of which a cell phone was required.
Opening it, she called 911 and waited for the operator to answer.
When she heard the voice on the other end of the phone, asking her to state her emergency, Serena said, "Yes, I'm at the park. There was a monster attack and my friends got hurt. Could you please send an ambulance down? I can't wake them up." Serena could hear the tears in her own voice. She zoned out for a moment until she realized that she had missed what the operator said.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Serena said.
"Where are you?" the operator asked. Serena told the operator to the best of her ability and when she heard the voice say that the ambulance was on its way, she sighed with relief and hung up the phone. Placing the phone back in her sub-dimensional pocket, she went to check on the rest of the scouts, who were lying unconscious on the ground.
Serena reluctantly checked for a pulse on each of the girls, deathly afraid that she wasn't going to find one. But when she felt the pulses of the scouts beating hard and regularly through their veins, she let out a sigh of relief. At least they didn't die because they got their memories back.
Although Serena didn't know how she knew, she was positive that the girls got their memories back, but they would be fuzzy for a while. It's like she could feel the torment that their souls were in and it was ripping her apart. It was tearing at the thin hold that she had on her emotions. She was determined not to cry; she was going to be strong for them until she knew they were going to be all right.
She heard the shrill of the ambulance's siren and saw it pull up in front of the park. Serena smiled slightly; the operator had understood her directions well enough to get the ambulance to the right location. Serena started to panic as the medics left the ambulance. She figured that having Sailor Moon at the scene with 4 human girls was not the best idea; it would cause suspicion.
She slid into the bushes as the paramedics approached the girls. The paramedics looked around the area, keeping an eye out for the girl that had called for the ambulance. When they realized that they weren't going to find her, the picked up the girls one by one and placed them on a gurney, loading them up into the ambulance and taking them off to the hospital.
As the ambulance disappeared from sight, Serena, still as Sailor Moon, slid out of the bushes, knowing that her friends would be all right. Physically anyway. She knew that the emotional scars that they received from getting their memories back would take a long time to heal.
Still shaking from the situation, she looked for something helpful to do that would get her mind off of what had happened.
"I know. I'll go get our stuff that we left back where we transformed. They would like that, especially Ami. She would hate it if her bookbag was missing with all her books in it. That's what I'll go do," Serena said, trying to fool herself that by doing this, she would be doing something helpful instead of trying to distract herself from her emotions.
She half walked, half ran to where their stuff was carelessly dropped on the ground. She slowly knelt down and picked up her bookbag, but held it at a distance from her when something on it caught her eye. It was a small keychain in the shape of a pink bunny. Serena's eyes stung with tears as she remembered the day she got it. Ami had gotten it for her, saying that she saw it when she was out shopping for her mother and said that it reminded her of Serena. Although it wasn't much, Ami said that she had to get it for her.
Tears came to her eyes as she remembered when Ami gave it to her. The small gift lifted her spirits because although it was small, the gift came from the heart. Looking at the keychain and remembering the feelings that it brought when she received it was too much for her emotions to handle. The precious hold that Serena had on her tears was lost and in the middle of the street, still as Sailor Moon, she began to cry.
***
The Ronin Warriors, still in their school uniforms, were walking home talking about the prank that Kento had pulled on Cye earlier that lunch hour. They were in the middle of laughing about Cye's reaction, when Sage's sharp ears picked up a sound.
"You guys, be quiet. I hear something." The seriousness in Sage's voice shut up all the other guys and when they were silent, they were able to hear the same thing that Sage heard and it wasn't happy.
The sound they heard was of a girl sobbing heart-wrenching tears of pain. With panicked looks at each other, they rushed off towards the depressing sound only to be stopped in their tracks. Not 10 feet away from them was Sailor Moon, huddled over on the ground, holding herself and sobbing loudly.
Ryo took a step forward and said, "Sailor Moon? Are you ok?" Serena's ears perked up at Ryo's voice. Ah, so the Ronin Warriors have found me.
Serena never told anyone, but she had known about the Ronin Warriors since she got her memories back and she had known that the 5 guys standing in front of her were the Ronin Warriors when she first saw them. When Serena, or Sailor Moon to the guys, hadn't responded, Ryo took another step forward, only to stop walking when Serena said in a quiet voice, "It's all my fault."
"What's all your fault?" Cye asked.
Serena looked up at them and the guys shivered at the look in her eyes. Her eyes held such sadness and pain for one so young, although she didn't look much younger than them; it was obvious that she had been through a lot.
"This is all my fault. My friends are hurt because I failed to protect them. And the wounds that they have received go deeper than physical."
"Um, no offense Sailor Moon, but what are you talking about?" Kento inquired.
Serena stood up slowly and looked at each one of them before she started to tell her tale.
"It all started on the Moon Kingdom 1000 years ago. When my mother, the Queen of the Silver Millennium and the Moon, Queen Serenity, realized that the other Sailor Scouts weren't enough to protect the royal family, namely my mother and I, we brought in my cousin and his four guards, all with special powers of their own, up to the moon to help the Sailor Scouts protect the royal family.
"I was so excited. I could see my cousin and his fiancée.
"But the Scouts were insulted. They felt that we thought that they weren't strong enough to protect me. So, when my cousin and his guards came, the Scouts welcomed them with less than open arms. But they didn't know they would fall in love. It was something that no one saw, but we didn't object. They were so in love, it brought such happiness to the Moon Kingdom, having 6 couples so very deep in love.
"Everything was happy. Until the day when Queen Beryl, ruler of the Negaverse and all that is evil, attacked the Moon Kingdom. Her four evil generals, who had previously been good and involved romantically with the Scouts, captured the Scouts and their lovers, forcing the Scouts to watch their lovers die for betraying them. My Scouts watched their lovers die."
Serena paused dramatically and looked up at them with a hard look in her eyes that chilled the Ronin Warriors to the bone.
"They watched you die. They looked on, bound by an energy field, as their ex-lovers slowly drained your lives away, not able to do anything about it. They died too, from heartache and the physical pain they received from the generals. So my mother, in an attempt to preserve the future, sent us all 1000 years into the future in hopes that we would live normal lives and meet up again.
"When I got my memories back about being the Moon Princess, I remembered you 5 and what happened to the Scouts in the last moments of their lives. So, to prevent them from the pain of their memories, I used the Silver Crystal to keep them from them.
"But today, during a battle, they used too much power to be contained in their Sailor Scout form and reverted to the state where they could handle that much power. They turned into the princesses of their planets and with that came all the memories. I tried to stop it, but it was too late."
Serena paused to draw in a shaky breath. As she closed her eyes to calm herself down, the Ronin Warriors felt sympathy for this girl standing in front of them. Opening her eyes, Serena continued.
"They had gained their memories back and there was nothing I could do but stand back and watch their souls be ripped apart." Tears had started dripping down her face again; the Ronin Warriors felt a great sadness. She had been through death and pain much more intensely than they had or probably ever would.
But, however convincing her story was, they had no proof that she was telling the truth.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Rowen asked suspiciously.
"Because, I know all about you, Rowen of the Strata," Serena said, trying valiantly to get her tears under control. She heard all the others gasp and Rowen just stared at her, eyes widened in shock. She gave a small smile at their shock and continued down the line of Ronin Warriors.
"I know all of you. Kento of Hardrock, Cye of Torrent, Sage of Halo, and Ryo of Wildfire. Oh, Ryo." Serena gave Ryo a tender smile.
"My cousin. I've missed you. I remember watching you die. When Mia was killed by Beryl on the Moon, you threw yourself head first into the battle, but only to get yourself killed." Serena sniffed loudly as tears came streaming down her face.
In a shaky voice, clouded with tears, she said, "I held your hand as you died, only to get pulled away by Prince Endymion, who was trying so hard to protect me. But, nothing ended well that day. We all died, but luckily, we're here today."
Suddenly, someone burst through the bushes.
"Sailor Moon?" Serena looked over to see Tuxedo Mask, or Darien to her, rushing towards her. He scooped her up into his arms and hugged her close to him as she cried.
"What happened? I could feel your pain all the way from home. So I got over here as fast I could. Tell me, what happened?"
"They got their memories of the Moon Kingdom back. The ones I was trying so hard to keep from them. The ones of watching the Ronin Warriors die."
"Oh God," Darien said, "Are they all right?"
"They will be. They're in the hospital," Serena whispered. Darien moved to take her away, but Serena stopped him.
"What is it?" he asked her.
"Their stuff. We have to get their stuff. That's what I came back here for." Serena hopped out of Darien's arms weakly and scooped up the Scouts book bags. Darien took three from her hand and put his other arm around her waist as they began to walk away.
Serena stopped walking and turned around to face the Ronin Warriors. Giving them a haunting smile, she said, "I'll see you guys in a couple of days." She continued to walk away with Darien, leaving the guys watching with amazement etched on their faces.
As the two disappeared from sight, Sage said, "Wow, that is a lot to take in."
"We were alive 1000 years ago?" Cye asked.
"And on the moon?" Kento added.
"I think she's a little off, if you ask me," Cye said.
"She can't be, she knew our names and Mia's. She has to be telling the truth. Plus, she knew that we were the Ronin Warriors. No one knows except for us, Mia, and Yuli," Rowen rationalized.
"But her story. It sounded so happy. Yet so sad. I mean, imagining watching the people you love die. That has to be harsh," Ryo said gruffly.
"Yeah," the guys agreed.
Their thoughts weighed down with depression, they made their way home, wondering more than ever who Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts were, especially considering Sailor Moon said that she would see them in a couple of days. But as they walked, they got no answers, only more questions.
***
The farther Serena and Darien got from the Ronin Warriors and the farther they walked, the more tired Serena got. Darien looked down at his love with worry and compassion. She's so tired. I wonder if she can make it home.
Serena, who almost read his thoughts said, "I have to go to the hospital. I have to see them." Looking up at his worried expression, she said, "Don't worry. I can make it. Just let me detransform so I can even go to the hospital." They pulled off the road into a grove of trees where they detransformed. As Serena detransformed, she almost collapsed into Darien's arms.
As he held her, he said, "You're just lucky my car is around here somewhere, or else you wouldn't be going to the hospital to see them."
After a few minutes of searching for his car, Darien finally found it, and put Serena, who was still in his arms, in the passenger seat and the Scouts' stuff in the back. Getting in the driver's side, he turned on the engine and made his was towards the hospital, asking Serena for directions, who answered absently. When they pulled up in front of the hospital, Serena snapped to attention and flew out of the car, Darien a couple of steps behind her. Serena practically ran into the hospital and up to the front desk.
Tapping her fingers on the counter, Serena asked the lady at the front desk, "Excuse me, but did 4 girls just come into the hospital from the park?"
The lady at the front desk looked up and said, "Yes, 4 unidentified girls came in just a minute ago. Why, do you know them?"
"Yes, they're friends of mine."
"Then, would you mind giving us information on them? We don't know who they are and we can't do anything for them until we know."
Serena nodded and said, "Sure. Hey Darien, could you get the girls' ID cards and social security cards out of their bags for the nice lady?"
"Sure," Darien said before taking off to the car. Serena turned back to the lady and said,
"Well, could I see them?"
"As soon as I get their names and enter them into the computer, I'll tell you where your friends are."
After a couple minutes of silence, Darien came in carrying a hand full of cards. The nurse behind the desk looked at the set of them and entered the information into the computer. Serena was nervously fidgeting as she waited for the nurse to finish with the computer.
"There we go," the nurse said as she handed Serena the cards.
Serena handed Darien the cards, which he put in his pocket, as Serena said, "Well?"
"You're friends are on the second floor in rooms 46 and 47."
Serena took off and called over her shoulder, "Thank you."
She and Darien reached the elevator and Serena jabbed the button, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for the elevator to reach the bottom. The door slowly opened and Darien and Serena stepped into the elevator. Darien pressed the button for the 2nd floor and the elevator doors closed and with a jerk, the elevator was taking them up to the second floor.
As soon as the elevator stopped and the door opened, Serena burst out into the hallway and began looking frantically for rooms 46 and 47. When she found room 46, she looked across the hallway and found room 47. Breathing in a sigh of relief, she opened the door for room 46 slowly with Darien standing behind her. Serena walked into the room and found Raye and Ami on beds that were facing each other. Serena walked over to Raye and swallowed down tears of pain and guilt. This is all my fault. If I were better at protecting them, they wouldn't be in the hospital.
Carefully, Serena reached over and grabbed Raye's hand. Raye unconsciously closed her hand around Serena's and Serena allowed a couple of tears to escape from her eyes.
"Oh God, Raye, can you wake up, please, and tell me you're all right?" As if to reassure Serena that she was all right, Raye opened her eyes and looked at her.
"Serena?"
"Yes Raye, I'm so glad you're ok."
With pain in her eyes, Raye said, "Is it true?"
Serena could hear how weak her voice was and said, "What do you remember?"
"I remember being tied up, I remember Jedite, and I remember him killing the man I love."
"Do you remember what the guy looked like?"
Raye searched her memory and said, "No, I don't. In my memories, he's all fuzzy." Serena breathed an internal sigh of relief. It meant less explaining for her to do later of something that she really didn't want to explain.
"But, is it true?" Raye asked again, her voice quavering with unshed tears. Serena looked at her regretfully and nodded slightly. Tears started to stream down Raye's face and soon, she was crying.
Serena looked at the raven-haired girl on the bed with surprise. Raye was the strongest person she knew and she never cried. Serena was almost unsure on how to handle a crying Raye. What she did was sit Raye up and gather her in her arms and comfort her as she cried.
Raye clutched Serena as the pain of her memories washed over her. Raye was glad that she didn't remember exactly who it was that she watched die. What if it was someone she knew and she had to face that person? She couldn't handle it.
Raye's tears calmed down eventually and when they did, Serena looked over to see Ami sitting up. Leaving Raye's side, she went over to Ami and put her arms around her. Ami, who was still stunned from her memories, wrapped her arms around Serena as well, letting only a few tears escape her eyes.
"Oh Ames, I'm so glad you're alright. Are you going to be ok?"
"Aside from the painful new memories of the Silver Millennium, I think I'll be ok in a few days. Don't worry Serena," Ami said in response to the worry etched on Serena's face.
"Well, I worry when my friends are in pain, you know?"
"Well, I think you better go check on Lita and Mina, see how they're doing." Serena nodded and went across the hallway to find both Lita and Mina sitting up in their beds.
She went over to Lita first and put a hand on her shoulder as Lita's memories came back.
"Are you alright, Lita?"
"Yeah, I just wish that Nephrite was still alive so I could pound his ass."
"Yeah, I know what you mean, but you're going to be ok with it?"
"I'll live," Lita said quietly.
"Good." Serena gave Lita a quick hug and then went over to Mina, who had a rather pained expression on her face.
"Are you ok, Mina?"
"What happened Serena? In the last moments of the Silver Millennium, what happened?"
"I don't know," Serena lied, "I was busy dealing with Darien and Queen Beryl. That's all I remember."
Serena hated doing it, but she had to lie. If the Scouts knew that she knew anything, they would demand that she tell them everything she knew and she couldn't do that.
"But, you are going to be ok?"
"I'll live," Mina said ruefully. Letting go of a sigh of relief, Serena slumped into the chair and almost fell asleep when Darien came in.
"What is it Darien?" Serena asked, her voice sounding weak and tired.
"I'm here to tell you that the doctors said that now that the girls are awake, they can go home as soon as they make sure the girls are all right."
"That's great, Darien," Serena said, while yawning. Darien shook his head at her and went over to pick her up.
Looking at Mina, he said, "I'm taking her home. I'll come back to get you guys afterwards, ok?"
"Sure thing, Darien," Mina said as she watched Darien carry Serena out of the room.
When they disappeared from sight, Mina thought, I hope we'll all be ok. Or else, the pain will consume us.
