Chapter 4 continued:
"What--?" the both started to scream, but they were cut off as the light became blindingly bright and in the next instance, they knew they were not alone.
"Who…?" Buffy left her question hanging while Serena instead cried out, "Mother!" and raced forward to embrace the serene figure that had appeared to the two blonds.
"Hello my daughter, hello Slayer of the Moon," the silver haired angel greeted.
"Daughter?" Buffy asked Serena, who was no longer beside her, instead rushing forward to embrace the silver-haired angel.
When neither angel nor girl answered her Buffy continued, "And what's with all this 'Slayer of the Moon' thing? I'm a Vampire Slayer, not a moon Slayer, 'kay?"
Finally the two let go of each other and it was then that Buffy noticed the striking similarities between Serena and the angel she had called mother. Both had identical hairstyles, similar facial features, and from what she could see of each, identical body features. Except Serena had a different dress style and the angel ofcourse had wings. Gossamer butterfly-like wings, but wings.
"I apologize Buffy," the angel said in a beautiful soprano voice. "My name is Queen Serenity, of the Silver Millennium of the Moon Kingdom. Serena is my daughter. Four thousand years ago, as you today recognize time, my Kingdom fell under attack by an evil force from another dimension called the Nega-verse. In order to save my kingdom, my daughter, and even to the point of the entire universe from this terrible threat, I sent them all into the future. Yet Serena and her court were not the only ones I sent into the future."
Buffy was just nodding her head, her eyes glazed over. "Uh huh, I'm totally with you."
Serena chose that inopportune moment to giggle at Buffy's obvious lack of understanding. "Don't worry Buffy, I had it hard the first time I heard it myself. Let me translate what my mother said. Four thousand years ago, on the moon, there was this amazing place called the Moon Kingdom that had kickin' parties every night. Then a bunch of demon soldiers from the Nega-verse, that other dimension, trashed the Kingdom and the only way to save everybody and to keep the Nega-verse from taking over was to send everybody, Nega-verse included into a future where we could properly defend ourselves from the Nega-verse. About five years ago, I found out that I was the Moon Princess, and then the future Neo-Queen Serenity, meaning that the Moon Kingdom will be reborn on Earth, and then we can have parties every night like before."
Buffy's eyes lit up as she got what Serena was saying, though some of the terms she used were still confusing. "Cool," she chirped and then turned back to Queen Serenity. "So what's this talk of 'Slayer of the Moon'?" Buffy's face suddenly got thoughtful. "Wait a sec, wait a sec! You…you don't mean that…I'm from this Moon Kingdom too?"
Serenity smiled and calmly shook her head. "Please, don't jump to conclusions. I will explain everything."
"Then please do so," both blondes muttered, Buffy more sarcastically, Serena more pleading. Serenity sighed.
"Ten thousand years ago, demons reentered the Earth Realm. From there, the demons quickly spread to the other planets and havoc and chaos reigned throughout the solar system. In order to counteract this evil, the forces of light blessed each individual planet with a unique warrior, among other forces, that was destined to fight the demons and protect human kind. That warrior was the Slayer. A young girl because of the being of light that is the source of all of the Slayers powers and because the Slayer is meant to be the personal bodyguard for each planet's princess."
"Whoa! Just hold on for one second here!" Buffy shouted. "You mean to tell me that thousands of years ago, every planet in the solar system had their very own Slayer and instead of getting a Watcher they had to protect some prissy pants snob princess?"
"Excuse me!" Serena exploded. "I happen to be the Princess of the Moon Kingdom, Ms. Slayer!"
Both girls suddenly froze as a revelation hit them both at the same instant. "Wait a sec," Buffy muttered. "You kept calling me…Slayer of the Moon. And…Serena's a Moon…Princess?" Queen Serenity nodded.
"First, you should be aware…the self-proclaimed "Watcher's Council" is nothing more than a farce funded by demonic efforts. There never existed anything as a "Watcher" until long after the fall of the Moon Kingdom. This Council was made to destroy the Slayers of each generation by taking her away from the source of her true power. Her family, her friends, and by taking away her love and her purity and by warping her destiny by telling her that she was destined to die. That is not true and it never was. A Slayer is meant to live, to love, to protect, to uphold justice, truth, and to fight for Light by killing darkness."
"Each planet's Princess are actually warriors all on their own. They protected the Moon Kingdom from outside forces, such as the Nega-verse and other forces of darkness. Slayers worked with the Princesses and primarily fought the demonic forces, which often combined with the Nega-verse in disturbing ways. Over the years, the Slayer's powers have been limited because of the interference of the Watchers. You have abilities that you never even knew existed Buffy. Your physical strength and speed have been increasing as of late, yes?"
Buffy silently nodded, her eyes wide as she absorbed what the angel said like a sponge.
"That is only the beginning. You have "died" twice already Buffy. Each time, you removed layer after layer of the evil influences of the Watchers. In order to remove the last of it…" Serenity let the sentence hanging.
"I don't understand," Buffy admitted. "You tell me that I'm one of nine Slayers…"
"Ten actually. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Earth…and Earth's Moon, the central of the Moon Kingdom. But life no longer resides on the other planets, only on Earth. You Buffy are the reincarnation of the Slayer of the Moon that I sent to the future after the fall of our kingdom, but you were held by the laws of Earth's Slayer. When you died at the hands of the vampire master, you no longer were held by those rules…and became the Slayer of the Moon once more."
"When the Earth's Slayer, you knew her as Kendra, died, you had already accessed a greater potential of the Slayers powers than had been accessed in over four thousand years. Therefore, the next Earth Slayer could also now access a greater level of her potential without the need of dying. Since your second death, both of you have gotten stronger, and when you reach the full power of a Slayer, so will she."
"Faith," Buffy realized. "You're talking about Faith. All right, so I'm the Slayer of…the Moon, and Faith is the Slayer of the Earth? So who's the Princess she's got to shack up with?"
Serena started. "Marise?" Serenity nodded at her daughter's observation.
Buffy looked confusedly at Serena. Serena caught the glance and just muttered, "I'll introduce you…after." Buffy nodded.
Buffy turned back to Queen Serenity. "Now what the hell do you mean I have to die one more time?"
Serenity just stared back at the blonde Slayer, not saying anything. "Listen to the voice of your dreams. It tells you what must happen in order for life to continue. The roads you travel, my daughter, Slayer, are long and hard, and very dangerous. I love you both. You protect this world from what cannot be defended from, only held back. I believe in you both."
With those final words, the angel that had once been Queen of the Moon Kingdom, faded from existence and in the next few seconds, as Serena and Buffy stared at each other in their white silk and crescent moon foreheads, the very reality around them began to fade, until they were no longer in the dream. Suddenly, they were violently awoken, and both golden haired girls found themselves staring at each other, in their street clothes, back in the alley with Serena's family.
"Serena!" Darien shouted as he caught her just before she would have fallen. Buffy just stumbled back a little and managed to catch herself. That was when she noticed she was still holding Serena's hand. 'Boy, we must have looked pretty silly holding hands during all that. Funny, cause I don't remember holding her hand in the dream.' Buffy thought to herself.
However the dark haired girl, who just seemed to be a shorter and female version of the male holding Darien, decided that Buffy somehow had something to do with Serena's loss of balance and before the Slayer could move, Marise was behind her and tried to get her in a hold to keep her from running. Buffy on the other hand didn't feel like being held in such a manner and easily countered nearly all of Marise's attempts until she finally was force to push the oil-black haired girl to the ground.
Marise looked up in shock at the strange blonde woman that had somehow affected Serena with just shaking her hand. Marise jumped to her feet and got into a an attack pose, but Serena, who had just lost her balance, not consciousness, stopped her. "Marise! Buffy! No! Stop!!" Serena shouted.
Marise, only through her constant hours of training, stopped in an instant. Buffy, who hadn't moved, didn't move. Buffy took in the situation. Serena, still being held by a tall dark-haired hunk that she took to be the other blonde's beau. Next to them was a smaller version of Serena with pink hair, and then there was the girl trying to attack her, that had stopped at the name "Marise."
Buffy looked at Serena and tilted her head towards the girl in front of her. "Marise?" she asked. Serena nodded. Frowning, Buffy continued, "The Princess of Earth?" Marise, Darien and Rini all started at that question Serena grimaced a little but nodded again. "Cool."
Buffy then turned to go, but again Serena stopped her. "Buffy! Wait!" Buffy stopped.
Serena wormed her way out of Darien's hold and went up to the other blonde. "What about…you know, what happened? What are we going to do about it?" Serena asked with concern.
Buffy shrugged. "Not sure. Right now I plan on going to the Magic Box and talk with Willow and maybe even Anya and tell them about…well just about everything and maybe we can interpret my dream, I mean our dream and then we can hopefully find some way of me getting the true power of a Slayer, whatever that means, without me dying that is and not to mention finding out what that whole evil vibe alter is."
"Oh."
Darien, Marise and Rini all came up behind the couple and Darien took it upon himself to be the spokesman for sanity at this moment. "Serena," he started in Japanese, "what's going on? Who is this girl? How do you know her? What just happened?"
Serena looked down and blushed, while Buffy just tilted her head and looked funny at Darien. Then she answered in flawless Japanese, "My name is Buffy Summers. And as for how I know Serena, well, we just met. By the way, could anybody please explain to me how I'm speaking fluently in another language?"
Serena, for Buffy's sake, answered in English. "Maybe it's because I speak Japanese. We, well, we are connected in a way."
Buffy nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. I guess. Come on. If you're here at this hour, I'm sure that you don't mind spending a few more in a place where we might actually be able to get some answers. Any objections?"
Serena gave a glare at her family, then turned back to the Slayer and answered for all of them, "No, no objections. In fact I insist that you take us to this…Magic Box? Besides, we need answers, and a back alley next to a loud American dance club is no place to have a serious discussion. Right Darien?"
"Uh, right?" Darien mumbled as he and the other two girls fell in line behind the two blondes.
"Oh Darien!" Serena gushed. "You're the best boyfriend in the whole world! Thank you!!"
"Boyfriend huh? He's cute," Buffy observed quietly. Serena only smiled in return.
To be continued…