Outside Ami's school, Tokyo – year 2000
When Ami exited her school the day after Usagi's depart, five men were waiting for her. Grim faced and with a dangerous air around them, they looked intimidating enough for a large void to appear around them. Everyone scooted around them. But not Ami.
In the moment she saw them, something came together in her mind. It was as if a door had opened and set memories she didn't know she had free. She knew these men, she knew their identities as well as she suddenly knew her own. All her knowledge of the Silver Millennium had been restored.
To say she was frightened by this new turn of events was to understate the whole thing. It terrified her. After all, she could now remember what they had done top the world the last time around. She could remember how one of them once had loved her and then turned on her in hatred. But the question that echoed in her mind was: why are they here, and what do they want?
The Palace, Moon, Imperial year?
Empress Serenity took one look at the former High Princess of Earth and sent everyone but the other royalty out of the throne hall. For in her hands, she carried the crown of the High Queen Gaia.
"I have bad news," she silently announced. "My mother, queen Gaia of Earth, is dead, and my brother, prince Endymion, was the one who murdered her, in front of the whole court."
A surprised sound flew through the room, followed by angry voices. Letting it go on for a while before returning the order, Empress Serenity turned to Briseis.
"Why would High Prince Endymion do such a thing?" she asked. "High Prince Endymion loved his mother."
Briseis looked away, tears in her eyes.
"Yes he did," she said quietly. "And he would never do anything to her. Normally."
Empress Serenity frowned.
"What do you mean?" she enquired.
The young woman turned her head and looked at Empress Serenity, a sad expression in her face and anger in her eyes.
"My exiled relative duchess Beryl" she simply said. "She has returned. And she has turned my brother's mind."
A sob was heard from the young Moon heiress standing among the other heirs in the back and Imperial Princess Serenity stepped forwards, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Can we not do anything to free him?" she asked, her eyes big and vulnerable.
Briseis didn't answer, but the Moon Empress turned to her daughter.
"We do not know," she softly said. "It depends on which spell she has put on him. If it's just a binding spell, we can free him, but if it's a soul bind..."
There was no need to say more. Everyone knew what it meant.
"What happened to his generals?" someone suddenly asked.
Briseis looked sad again.
"He brought them with him" she said. "I was not quick enough to save them."
Suddenly, a high laughter was heard, echoing through the silent hall. It came from the balconies, high above the hall, where the people could come to listen to their empress during her audience hours. Everyone lifted their eyes to look there and gasped as they took in the sight of the five men standing there with prince Endymion in the front and Kunzite, Zoicite, Jadeite and Nephrite behind him.
The prince smiled evilly at their expressions and let his gaze glide over his audience. Pausing slightly at his sister and Imperial Princess Serenity, he mockingly blew them a kiss. Then they disappeared into nothing.
"No!"
The scream echoed through the castle, coming from the slender woman in white, collapsing on the floor next to her best friend, now High Queen of Earth.
"Don't leave me..."
Tokyo, Japan year 2000
Ami returned to the present with a quick shake of her head and stared at the former nobles of the Empire. They were all there, like they had been millennia ago. Everything was just like then.
"Endymion-sama."
The word was spoken with such spitefulness it even shocked herself. However, it wasn't unexpected. Mamoru lifted his head to look at her.
"Ami-san" he mockingly said. "Or should I say 'Sailor Mercury-san'?"
She willed herself not to comment on his reckless revelation of her alter ego, knowing that it would make the whole thing even worse. Steeling herself, she nodded curtly.
"Call me what you like," she said with a neutral voice she worked hard to keep. "I'm both of these persons. Who are your friends?"
She already knew of course, but it would be very foolish to let on that she remembered too much. Refusing to look upon the tall person with the long, curly blond hair, she focused on Endymion.
"Oh" he just said. "You haven't been introduced, have you?"
He flashed her an evil grin, no doubt thinking about her past with one of them.
"Well?" he smirked. "Aren't you going to introduce yourselves?"
Ami rather sensed than saw how Kunzite rolled his eyes; he'd always been a rather sarcastic one and then stepped forwards.
"Kunzite Haldane," he tonelessly said with a markedly Scottish accent. There was no doubt where he had been born in this life. It suited him though, as foreign as he looked with his white blonde hair.
"Nephrite Glushenko," Nephrite said, making himself known. Apparently he had been born a Russian in this life.
"Jadeite Okamoto," Jadeite said, and then Ami braced herself, knowing what was coming next.
"Zoicite Johansen."
The voice belonging to her once beloved swept over her, sending chills down her back. So well known and so beautiful. She had never realized how big part of her life he had been back then. Remembering how it had felt when he joined Beryl's team, she knew that she never wanted to feel that way again. Yet, she was standing there, faced with the same thing as then. Her thoughts came to an abrupt end when Endymion spoke up once again.
"So" he said. "Now when we all are properly introduced, why don't we get down to business, hmm?
Ami flinched inside. What did the damn guy want from her?
"Hai, why don't we?" she said calmly, not cluing them in on her terrified state.
Endymion glared at her, anger molded into his every feature. She couldn't fathom why though.
"'Why don't we'?" he incredulously replied with that icy voice of his. "You speak as if you are not aware of what we want from you."
Ami shook her head, on guard even as she knew that her situation was hopeless if they would decide to harm her - no one could fight five grown men with lethal fighting skills and magic in their bodies alone.
"I am not aware of what you want with me," she patiently said, showing a calmness she didn't possess. "I'm no mind reader. If you are in need of one of those, you should have visited Rei-chan."
He raised his eyebrows and looked at her, a cold smirk on his face.
"Are you so sure we will not harm you that you dare to go against us?" he taunted.
Ami just looked at him.
"No" she seriously said. "I'm not. But it's the truth that I do not know what you want from me."
"And if I don't believe you?"
Letting some of her anxiousness out, she replied.
"Then that's your problem."
Then a voice spoke up, a voice she both wanted and didn't want to hear.
"You're brave girl" Zoicite said. "But I dare to wonder - will you be as brave when we decide we don't believe you?"
Ami raised her head defiantly and looked squarely into the eyes of her former beloved.
"Well, as I see you don't now, I can't see why I would be less brave because of you speaking the words out loud."
When she had spoken the words, she realized what she had done and paled. However, to her surprise, Endymion just laughed.
"We believe you," he said cruelly. "And hear my words, that's the only thing keeping us from annihilating both you and your friends. But heed my words, the moment I hear that you have in your possession the item which I seek for, I will haunt you."
When he had said that, he turned around together with the generals and jumped into the red Ferrari standing a little bit away. Two seconds later, they were just a cloud of dust and Ami were sprinting her way to her bike.
Cherry Hill Temple, Japan, Tokyo year 2000
They sat in a circle in the sweet, green grass under a cherry tree, not looking on each other, or moving, all waiting for Luna to arrive. By chance, they had all been at the temple when Ami arrived, gasping out the news. None of them knew what to do. Fighting the youma was all right, but fighting all four generals plus the awakened prince Endymion over an item they didn't know were too much. Too much for them to handle without the six missing senshi, especially with the old memories beginning to awaken in their minds.
When the small black cat came running up towards them, they all looked grimly at her, making the small feline make an abrupt stop, almost sliding into Rei. She stared at their serious expressions for a second, and then sat down.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Has something happened?"
Rei smiled tiredly.
"History is repeating itself," she told Luna. "The Five generals are back."
Luna did not understand a thing.
"The Five generals?" she asked confusedly. "History repeating itself?"
"Our memories are returning, and so will yours," Ami answered in an emotionless voice. "The Five generals are now reincarnated and back into power. Just like it was during the Silver Millennia."
"Yes," Makoto agreed. "And without our full numbers, all we can do is try to keep the casualties down. Try to hold out until reinforcements come. For right now, the three of us are the only ones with the training to fight this…"
