The Silence

A Sailor Moon Fanfiction

By: Bekah-chan

Rating: PG



Disclaimer: Nooooooo!!!!!!!!! It's NOT MINE!!!!! (Sailor Moon, I mean) *sob*



Chapter 8:

Most of the Warrior's life had been spent in a deep, catatonic, slumber. Sometimes she would rise toward consciousness enough to dream about things, as they were happening. This went along with her powers; she needed to *see* that her powers were required, that there was no other way, before she would allow herself to awaken. Rare were the times when her awareness would be close enough to the surface of sleep, for her personality to be in evidence. Before current events, there had only been one person to see her so, to see into her dreams, her best friend, Princess Serenity. ~Oh, Nity~ Saturn thought to herself, ~I wish you were here to see how your daughter has grown!~



*****Moon Palace(kind of)---- Silver Millennium:

Serenity looked about herself in wonder, for she had no idea where she was. The last thing she remembered was one of the maids helping her brush out her long, white, hair, before she climbed into bed, for a much deserved rest. She looked down to see that she was still in her nightgown and robe, her unbound hair floating around her, in a gentle breeze.

The Princess brought her eyes up again to gaze in awe at her surroundings. She was standing at the edge of a clearing or meadow. Skirting the clearing were trees of a kind she had never seen before. Their bark was an odd silver-gray color that seemed to shimmer, just a little. The leaves were a thousand shades of purple, fluttering in the same breeze that stirred Serenity's hair.

From where she was standing, Serenity could also see flowers. These exotic plants, scattered here and there in a field of purple grass, defied description, so varied were they in color and shape. But one flower caught Serenity's attention, for she was sure she had seen it somewhere before. It was more of a bush, really, purple and white in color. The purple started at the base of the plant, so dark it was almost black. This color paled by degrees as it traveled up the many stems and leaves, until it reached it's final shade of lavender, near the top. Where the stems ended there was an explosion of small blossoms, all of the purest white. And suddenly Serenity remembered where she had seen this flower before, in one of the greenhouses on the grounds surrounding the Moon Palace. There was only one plant, it's kind so rare that the one on the Moon was considered to be the only one in existence. No one was sure of it's origin, but many people believed it to be a last remnant of the long barren planet, Saturn.

............Saturn

Could this place really be Saturn? She looked up and saw a glittering trail of space dust, that stretched diagonally from horizon to horizon. If those were Saturn's rings, then she must be on that planet. But how?

One hundred years before, in the time of Serenity's Grandfather's reign, there had been a global war raging on Saturn. When the refugees started to poor into the Moon Kingdom, the King, at the time, had tried to get the people of Saturn to moved toward peace. But the situation was already out of hand. Two weeks from the time the war had been brought to the King's attention, it was over, leaving Saturn the barren planet it was today. Because of the extent and swiftness of the destruction, strong magic was suspected to have been involved. Very strong magic. But no one knew *what* kind of magic, could wipe out all life on a planet, in a few days.

The Princess was shaken from her thoughts by an abrupt change of scene. One second she was standing among the long dead flowers of Saturn, the next she was standing in the Moon Palace. She felt a little different, and realized that she was in one of her princess dress', and her hair was up in it's usual style. Serenity looked around and discovered that she was in the corridor leading to Saturn's chamber, so she started walking that way.

She could hear no noise at all. Even her own footsteps, on the ancient stone, echoed soundlessly. As she got closer she noticed that the door, to the resting place of the Soldier of Destruction, was open. The Princess picked up her skirts and began to run. What had happened? Had someone broken into her friend's room? Was Saturn alright? Eeep! Had someone woken her up!?! She ran headlong into the room, skidding to a stop when she saw everything was as she had left it.

What a relief, her friend was safe! Oh, and the Universe too, of course!

Serenity sank down in her chair to catch her breath. As she sat there she noticed that something *was* different about the room, it was night. Instead of sunlight flooding the room there was, what the people of Earth called: 'moonlight', and the people of the Moon called: 'earthshine'. Why was she here in the middle of the night? Had she sleep walked? Or, was she still asleep, and dreaming this?

"The last one," said a voice to her left. Serenity swung her head around, to look at Saturn who... was sitting up and talking to her!!

"Wh....What?" Serenity stammered in surprise.

"You're dreaming," Saturn answered, smiling.

"Oh! I'm dreaming! That's okay then," she was a little stunned.

"I'm sorry for startling you, Serenity. I thought you were tougher than that!" Saturn giggled, swinging her legs over and scooting off the stone bench.

"Hey! I can be tough!"

"Oh, I'm sure you can, Princess," Saturn's tone was serious, but her eyes were sparkling with mirth. Serenity smiled with her friend as she rose to her feet, walking over to Saturn. They stood looking at each other for a moment, then both their smiles widened, and they hugged.

Even though she knew she was dreaming, Serenity was sure that this *was* her friend of more then a year. She started to cry quietly, but Saturn still heard her. She pushed the Princess back to look into her face.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I'm okay," Serenity answered, smiling through her tears, "I'm just happy."

"Me too," Saturn smiled again. They hugged one more time, before stepping apart, both wiping tears from their eyes. A few moments later they were sitting side by side on Saturn's bench, and Serenity was wondering if she would ever stop smiling.

"How is this possible?" she asked.

"Since we can read each others' emotions so well I decide to see if we could share dreams too." Serenity thought about that, it made sense. A few months before, Saturn had started to pick up Serenity's emotions. Soon they could 'read' each other no matter where Serenity was in the Palace. After that, sharing dreams didn't seem to far a step.

"I'm glad it worked," Serenity commented, Saturn nodded. "So, who's dream are we in?"

"You could say 'both'" Saturn began.

"You could, huh?"

"Or, you could say 'mine'," the Soldier of Silence leaned toward her friend and whispered conspiringly, "I have a lot of dreaming experience." both girls giggled. They relaxed back on their hands, and looked through the skylight at the Earth. That beautiful blue and green orb that was suspended above them, half in the shadow of eclipse.

Serenity sighed, "Have you ever been there?" she asked her friend, before she realized what a stupid question it was. How could Saturn go there if she was always asleep?

"Yes, I slept there for a while."

"You did? I thought you were always here?"

"This time around. I was on Earth, before...." Serenity realized Saturn was talking about another time-line she had been forced to destroy.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up," she apologized.

"No, it's okay. You can ask," she sounded like she *needed* to tell someone, to share her burden with someone. Serenity would be glad to take on some of the pain for her friend, the Princess was honored her friend trusted her that much.

"So, how did you end up on Earth?" she asked softly.



To Be Continued ^_^



Author's Note: Happy now, Roberta?