This is a bit of a different fanfic than I'm used to writing. I thought it was an interesting premise, so I decided to write it. Here go the disclaimers: I don't own Sailor Moon, so don't sue me, yada yada yada…

Anyway, if you want to email me, it's at Guardian4@atlantic.net. However, PLEASE put Fanfiction or something like that in the subject line. I get a lot of junk mail and I may just delete it without reading it otherwise, though I won't mean to.

Onto the story…

Angelic Embrace

Part 6

Minako stirred her tea absently. So Ami had remembered…? Remembered what? Why had she so suddenly changed? What had happened to make her reserved friend jump into a stranger's arms as if she had known him for years before? And what on earth had changed her enough to passionately kiss Zale James Indiano?

She just didn't have any answers. Then she smiled wryly. Wasn't that the reason Kino Makoto had come? To find answers? Well, if she had found answers, Minako had found questions instead. There was also something about Hino Rei. What wasn't?

And those monsters…And Ami…Diamond Dust…

Why did they sound familiar? Why…Why period? She couldn't put all the things she wanted to know into questions. All it was, all that was left, was feelings of irritation or Why.

She sighed and paid for her drink, leaving the shop. Raindrops fell from sky and she looked up. The sky was clouding up and lightning arched across its expanse.

'Jupiter…'

Minako started and looked across the street. With the flash of lightning, it illuminated a figure across the street, the Senshi of Jupiter. She felt a wave of irritation. Hadn't Pluto said not to be in Senshi form in public? She dashed across the empty and silent street under the pouring rain.

But as soon as she got to the other side no one was there. She blinked, her wet hair sticking to her face and back. She looked all around her and finally noticed all the shops were closed, no one was on the street, hurrying to somewhere else with an umbrella or not. There were no cars coming. It was silent.

Minako shivered from the cold rain and something else. It was almost as if she was the only person left on Earth.

'Star Children…'

Minako whipped around to look around her again, but saw no one. Star Children? What was that?

Thunder rumbled ominously; lightning flashed. Ahead of her again was Jupiter. She wasn't looking at Minako, or at anything Minako could see. She ran through the rain, her eyes never leaving that figure in front of her.

When she reached a few inches near her, lightning flashed and she was gone. Minako began to grow frustrated.

'Thunder God…'

"What do you want of me?" she suddenly cried out.

'Flame Shot…'

"Leave me alone!"

'Diamond Dust…'

The last phrase caught her attention. Diamond Dust…That was what Ami had called out yesterday during that battle. What did it mean? Was whatever that happened to Ami going to happen to her? For a long moment, she hoped it did. Why did she feel jealous of her close friend? Because of the man she was dating?

Her thoughts roamed back to three years ago. If someone had asked her then if she was in love, she would have said without a doubt she had found her soulmate. What had changed that? The pain of finding out that her 'love' had cheated on her with another of her friends.

Chi had said she hadn't known they were dating, but Minako knew she was lying. All her friends had known she had been dating him, knew she had made plans to live the rest of her life with him. Minako had distanced herself from Chi after she had broken up with Ace.

The rain pounded on her head, running down her cheeks with her tears. Why was it always her that was forced to bear her pain for the sake of someone else? Why weren't the people she had to bear for not the one she wanted to bear for? Why wasn't that blonde girl here?

"WHERE ARE YOU?" she screamed, her voice broken by sobs in the empty street.

'Presenting Princess Mina of Venus…'

"Stop it! Stop IT!" Her hands clutched her wet hair and her eyes closed. Something was fighting to show her something, but she didn't want to know. Or did she? She let go and stopped fighting. Almost immediately her vision was taken over by things she didn't understand.

The Princess Mina of Venus watched nervously as her princess, the one she was sworn to protect, walked gracefully down to meet her betrothed. She had known from the moment she had seen him, they were destined, but Serenity didn't know that.

A hand on her shoulder nearly made her jump out her skin and she whirled around. She breathed again when she saw who it was.

"Lita. Don't do that!"

"Calm down, Mina. It's not as if she's going to trip and fall. She's more graceful than you sometimes."

Mina glared at her. "Princess Makoto, don't you dare try to pull that on me."

Lita cast her a sharp glance. "Be careful Mina. You know we aren't allowed to use those magic names. We're only supposed to use our use names, even among us."

Mina looked away. She knew that knowing magic names gave someone power over you. The rites of becoming Senshi had revealed each birth name among the eight of them and the royals. One had to be careful who one gave the real name to. So they had use names that everyone but the close-knit Senshi and royals of all planets except Earth knew.

Raye and Amy walked up to her as well, ready for their calling. "Today, we'll meet the Earth Shitennou for the prince," said the Mercurial Princess. "What did you say they were like, Mina, when you would go down to fetch the princess?"

Mina sighed irritably. All of them, Amy included, had been asking her that question for days. "I already told you, I don't know. I only met Kunzite."

The dreamy look filled her face as she thought of the tall man she'd met on the Earth when she had gone to retrieve her wayward princess. Lita poked her and she started.

"Presenting Princess Amy of Mercury."

Amy stepped out, looking like calm waters, though Mina knew she was nervous. Like calm waters, it hid deeper pools of churning emotions inside.

"Presenting Princess Raye of Mars."

Raye put on a bold face and stepped out from the doorway that Mina was peering from behind.

"Presenting Princess Lita of Jupiter."

Lita winked at her and strode forward, graceful on the lighter gravity of the Moon. It was well known that the heaviest gravity was on Jupiter, though Earth was a close second.

"Presenting Princess Mina of Venus."

Mina took a deep breath and walked flawlessly to the stone dais. She bowed to her queen and took her place next to the princess whose eyes were locked onto the prince's.

One by one, being introduced, Endymion's guards entered the hall. Last, like her, Kunzite came, signaling his rank above his fellows. His eyes locked with hers and his lips twitched, as if he wanted to smile at her. She fought it herself. If anyone of the court found out she had gone to Earth, and to get the princess no less, there would be hell to pay. But it had been worth it…

…Venus jumped above the blast. She cursed. This was supposed to be the happiest day of Jupiter's…Lita's…Makoto's life and now they were being attacked. Why couldn't she have done something, foreseen this? But then, she wasn't psychic like Mars was, and even she hadn't seen this.

"Star Children!" Beams of light and golden stars burst from her hands as she held them at her sides. She brought them above her head and twirled. The beams and golden stars floated around her enemy. An explosion and dust flew everywhere, signaling the youma's destruction.

"Thunder God!"

Venus almost winced when she heard of Jupiter's voice. It was filled with rage and sadness. They all knew that this battle could mean the end of the moon. It was too much, this battle. It could mean the end of the moon…

"Flame Shot!"

"Diamond Dust!"

She noticed Mars had had to revert to one of her less powerful attacks. She must have used a lot of power for her other, most powerful attack. Gods, Selene, help us, she prayed as they fought on.

Minako listed to the side as she tried to walk. "Leave me alone," she whimpered. She fell on the pavement and covered her head, as if these things she was seeing were coming from the raindrops. She sobbed there, alone on the empty street, for ten minutes as the visions continued, though none were as complete as the first two. They were either feelings or snatches like photographs through her brain.

She dragged herself onto her feet and made her way home. She barely got in the door and closed it when her legs gave out. At the sound of the door shutting, the white cat named Artemis entered the hall. He gave her a shocked look and ran to her, careful of the water soaking the floor.

"Minako, Minako, are you all right?"

She smiled. She was growing accustomed to this strange talking cat; she was even attributing human emotions to it.

"I'm fine, Artemis."

She levered herself onto her feet and into the bathroom where she undressed and dropped her wet clothes. No need for a shower now; she'd had one outside. Wrapped in a blue terry bathrobe, she went into her bedroom.

She glanced at the mirror and looked at her hair. Ever since she had gotten that pen and became that warrior Venus, her hair had grown down to her butt and had not gotten shorter since. She had almost made an appointment to get it cut again, but the feeling that it wouldn't matter stopped her. Her glance fell on the pen on the desk. It was a strange thing, that pen that had changed her life.

Minako sat at her window and looked at the moon.

'It could mean the end of the moon…'

What did that mean? No one lived on the moon before, but Pluto had said there had been a civilization on there. It all came down to magic, which she had always been inclined to believe in until three years ago. When Ace had cheated on her with her friend Chi, magic had no longer existed for her.

But when Keagan had appeared…It was as if magic had reappeared inside of her. Him alone would have made her think that magic existed, even if the things Pluto had shown her hadn't shown it itself.

She dropped back on her bed and fell asleep, still wondering.

That night the dream was a little different.

When she appeared at the bubbles, the man was still there, yes, but something was different. Then she had it; the bubbles were moving! They were shifting, as if they were balls that were trying to get out of a tightly tied net.

"What's going on?" she cried, irrational fear filling her.

The man looked at her, the royal blue eyes filled with steel. "Mercury has awakened. He knows it. But that is not enough. All of you must awaken. You in particular, leader of the Senshi, Venus."

She was thrust back to reality by the phone ringing. "I'm the leader," she mumbled.

Minako stumbled to the phone, but as soon as she was there, she realized that it wasn't ringing. But something was.

Artemis ran in the room with something between his teeth. Jumping on the table next to the phone he dropped it in front of her. "The ringing is coming from your communicator. Answer it!"

Hesitantly Minako picked it up and pushed a button. Ami's picture filled the small screen, though she had that tiara on her head. She was a Soldier then.

"Venus, thank goodness I could get you. Luna has to get Makoto with the communicator and I have no idea if Mars remembers how to use it. You must come down to Juuban Hospital quickly. He's attacking again."

The visual cut off and Minako put down the communicator slowly, thinking deeply. Artemis nipped her hand and she jumped. "Hurry and henshin! They need you!"

"Venus Crystal Power, Make-Up!"

Minako ran down the street, dressed in that strange attire. It was still deep night; she must have had only an hour of sleep since she had gotten home that night. Grumbling at her lack of sleep, she ran into a bloodbath.

The man stayed high in the air above them, throwing magic attacks in every ally's direction. There were fifteen youma, ranging from eight feet tall to barely three feet tall. Keagan landed next to her and she saw him scanning her haggard and pale face. She could tell he wanted to tell her to stay out of battle, but it was painfully obvious that they needed all the help they could get and didn't dare to risk it by telling her to stay out of it.

"Our main problem is him," he said, pointing to the floating man. "As soon as we get rid of him, we shouldn't have such a problem with the youma. And to top it off, Mercury is the only one…" He trailed off.

"The only one what?" she asked sharply, her eyes watching the battle.

"The only one who remembers."

Her eyes snapped to him, but he was already gone, back into the battle. She shook her head. She didn't want to remember, if what those things she saw in her mind were true.

She jumped into battle, doing her best to fight. However it became clearly noticeable that the only people having any success at fighting were Makoto and Rei.

"Shabon Spray!"

A dense fog covered the area, though Minako found she could still see. She aimed a weak punch at a youma and it whirled catching her fist. It tossed her like a rag doll onto the ground.

Twin silver boomerangs flew at the youma, distracting it from her. From behind, a monster about two and a half feet tall jumped on Keagan's back and began digging in its claws. He grunted in pain and tried to dislodge it. The bigger youma that had attacked her moved in for what it saw was an easy kill.

Minako's breath caught as Keagan threw off the youma and blasted it, not seeing the one weaving itself toward him. She jumped up, hoping her warning came out quick enough.

However, what came out of her mouth was not a warning.

"Star Children!" Like before, beams of light and golden stars burst from her hands as she held them at her sides. She brought them above her head and twirled. The beams and golden stars floated around her enemy. An explosion and dust flew everywhere, signaling the youma's destruction.

Silence fell on the battlefield and Venus's blue eyes looked up, filled with unmatchable anger. "As the leader of the Senshi, Sailor Venus, you will perish at my hand." Her voice was low, but easily heard by everyone.

"Silver Dragon!"

A dragon made of silver, gold, and white light erupted behind her and glared balefully at the man floating in the air. It screeched and launched itself at him, beams of golden light coming from its mouth. Sparkles of silver light fell from its wingtips and harmlessly on them and the ground.

He screamed as one of the beams hit him and disappeared.

The dragon whirled and dived for the ground, heading for the largest concentration of youma. A beautiful eruption of yellow light filled the area and ten youma were destroyed. The last five were easily dispatched. Venus felt herself waver in exhaustion, finally remembering.

She looked up at Kunzite, who watched her inscrutably. Suddenly she smiled and tottered toward him, falling into his arms. He looked down at her, his eyes brightening in hope. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him slowly. He eagerly kissed her back, as if he had waited for years to even hold her.

"Kunzite."

Venus pulled away and smiled into his eyes before collapsing.

End of part 6

Like I said before, these attacks are from Legend of Dragoon. I don't own them. Sony, Playstation, whoever owns the rights to them.