Serena made it back to Mamoru's car out of breath and exhausted. She didn't know what she had walked in on or why it had affected her in such a way but she did know that it had been something more important than her or her own measly life. How she came to this conclusion she didn't know but she could feel it in her soul so strongly it was breathtaking. Not that she had any breath to spare at the moment she was drained and more than she should be from just the run. The car door was locked and she seemed to have misplaced the keys which were of course sitting on the drivers seat. There was a numeric pad under the door handle but she didn't know the code so she sat and waited in the small amount of shade that the car afforded. Footsteps approached and slightly dizzy she looked up to see Mamoru looking at her in that odd piercing way only he could. She didn't know if it was her head, the heat haze or if he really did look different but for the first few moments she thought he was wearing something odd but when she could see him clearly he looked as he always had with that same light in his eyes but he was guarded now and approached cautiously.
"Are you okay?" He asked offering her a hand up. Serena didn't take it knowing that that shock would probably knock her out in her current state. She nodded but had to put a hand on the car to keep from falling over. Claiming low blood sugar as the reason for her weakness Mamoru opened up the car so she can sit down. Serena tried to think over what she had just seen but she can't seem to get her mind to bend around the thought that they were super beings or maybe aliens. She didn't know what to think about them but she had never seen anything of the sort before. Mamoru was still looking at her, even though he had climbed into the car as well and started the engine so the air conditioner could cool the air that washed over them. He seemed to be waiting for something, what she didn't know, but she also felt that she needed to offer an explanation for why she had been locked outside of the car. She started to talk several times but nothing came out so she swallowed hard then started again.
"Have you ever seen…" She tried but that wasn't what she meant to say. "Do you know of…:" No that didn't make much sense either. She was getting frustrated with herself, and that made her stumble even more. Mamoru captured one of her waving hands in his own and she looked up at him as that shock ran over them both. He banked the emotion in his eyes and she struggled to do the same. The effect of his touch was enough to make her put her thoughts in order, instead of the other way around which should have happened. Still she could speak. "I saw them. They were so beautiful and so strong. They were magnificent and terrible in their rage but honorable. Does that make any sense?" She had looked away as she spoke but looked back at him again to meet his eyes and could see that he knew more than he was letting on.
"They're called the Sailor Senshi, they protect Japan and sometimes the world." He let go of her hand and looked away his eyes guarded again.
"From what?" It was the logical question and one that deserved to be answered.
"They protect us from aliens of different origins. Mainly we call the yuma's or monsters. There's been a couple from their past as well but that is a long story in and of itself which I unfortunately don't know." He couldn't let on that he knew more than a general bystander should but his explanation seemed to be enough for her and she sat there silently thinking while he put the car in gear and drove them to breakfast.
Serena had forgotten to leave a note with the concierge as to where she had gone and although the others were worried they weren't all that surprised when Serena came back in the passenger seat of Mamoru's car. They were surprised by how subdued she was but she passed it off as not having gotten any sleep and Amanda told her to get a nap before the others showed up. Mamoru got to spend some time with the others as they lounged around the pool and talked about what they were going to do that night. He got to learn how awesome these people that had taken Serena in and given her a home really where. At this point he was having to seriously consider the fact that she might be spending the rest of her life in America and that thought was just painful but a likely scenario.
Serena was up and changed by the time the others showed up for their last night on the town. She had chosen to wear that same white fleece outfit she had worn for the concert as it made her feel better and something was seriously bumming her out. She couldn't put a finger on it as she put her earrings in and looked in the mirror. Sometimes Serena wondered if the woman looking back at her was a reflection of only her outward appearance and not her inner self, but how could she be anything different than what she was? Sighing she grabbed her purse and the keys to her bike and tracked down her family just as they were getting out of the pool. They hadn't seen her yet as she stood by the door looking at them through the glass that reflected the pool on their side.
Here were the people she had known as long as she could remember, they had befriended her, given her a home, a car, a life and even the love of brothers and a sister but when she looked at the man who was playing in the pool with them she felt something squeeze her heart making her frown. Despite all the barriers she had put up and all the plans she had made to the contrary this man had gotten under her skin and past all those walls without a single conscious attempt to do so. The sun sparkled brightly off the water in his hair and along his body and Serena shifted her position to get a better look at the intense face and well muscled body and realized that if she wanted to get under his skin and make him feel for her just as she was beginning to feel for him. But that was wrong of her, he already had someone, someone he loved very very much. She made no movement but suddenly she felt his eyes on her and looking at his face she met his deep blue eyes and for a moment she thought that maybe he knew she was here. When he didn't look away she was certain of it and afraid of being caught staring she opened the glass doors and stepped through to be greeted by her family.
Mamoru had felt her eyes on him for a long time before he actually looked up to find her. He would give her whatever time she needed if it meant that in some way she would come back to him but when he felt that same warmth he had known as long as he had known Usagi-chan fill his heart he couldn't help but look up even though he couldn't actually see her. Something was giving, something was changing and he knew it had to be for the better but when she stepped out through the doors she didn't look any different, there was no light of recognition in her eyes, she was the same Serena she'd been during her entire visit. Her family tried to get her to come closer to the pool, she grinned knowing better than to trust them and stayed far enough away to stay dry while they got out and toweled off. The boys offered to let Mamoru use their shower to get the chlorine out of his hair and he accepted as they all trouped back to their rooms.
Later that night, after the theater and the enormous meal they had all consumed, the two groups found themselves walking through the park Serena had found on her own that one day, and despite it being so late at night there were other couples there as well. Haruka and Michiri were the first to wander off by themselves and Adam singled out Minako and they, with their heads bowed together in a conference walked off towards the small lake. Alex and Rei were trading jokes as they continued walking down the path not paying any attention to anyone and Setsuna and Ami were taking to Amanda about the flight tomorrow and Hotaru followed them like a lost puppy. This left Serena alone with Mamoru and for a moment she wondered if this was orchestrated but one look at her companions and she knew it wasn't. Mamoru was being rather silent as they just walked an awkward silence forming between them.
Serena let her feet choose their path and found herself headed for that same rose garden that had held her attention that day and in the moonlight it was as enchanting as ever. Mamoru stopped walking when they reached the area and Serena felt herself pulled forward to smell the beautiful flowers that were blooming in every colour a rose could. When she realized Mamoru still hadn't come in she stood to look at him and the clouds broke letting the full moon bask them in its radiance. The light seemed to be absorbed by his dark hair and dark clothes where on Serena who was in white it gave her an unearthly pallor. Mamoru stared and Serena stared until it seemed the night should break with the weight of their looks but yet nothing changed and only the wind dared break the silence.
For the first time since knowing who she really was Mamoru found himself unable to hide his feelings from her as the light turned her into a ghost and he could only force himself to breath, not think not reason. All the loss and pain flooded through him as she seemed to look through him to his very soul and once all of that was gone there was only love a feeling so deep and so thick he nearly choked. He couldn't tell this Serena how he felt for her, he could show her in his eyes but he couldn't put it to words. She couldn't understand. But even if it were his own Usagi could he have ever brought himself to ask for forgiveness? All he had wanted to do was explain that it had been a dream, a very realistic and frightening dream, but a dream all the same that had made him break her heart even as his own was cleaved from his chest. He had deserved to be hurt for hurting her and he knew that down in the depths of his soul but his soul yearned for forgiveness.
Serena knew he had given up the fight with himself when she saw the emotions he'd sought so hard to hide surface and be laid bare. She herself had tried to keep him from having to feel them but it seemed that her very existence made that impossible for him and she let the feelings wash over her as though they were a physical thing and perhaps they were. The pain was acute she could feel her own heart hurt the loss just as real as she had experienced her own but the love that came afterwards was not something she was equipped to cope with. Never before had she seen such a pure emotion something that could wrap around a person and never let them go. Something inside her fought against bonds she hadn't known where there something wanted free so badly it literally caused her pain even though she didn't fight it. She wanted to be able to love back but the love wasn't for her it was for someone more than she could ever be.
Serena turned away then hurt and pain filling her but this time they were her own. How she wanted to be loved like that be cherished and sought after until the stars themselves had been searched and yet she knew that this man wasn't caring for her. How she knew that was beyond her but just as she sometimes knew things or the answers to questions came to her from the depths of her mind she knew this now and no matter what he thought she couldn't accept the love. It wasn't hers to take. She felt rather than heard Mamoru come up behind her so close if she were to move just an inch they would be pressed full length against each other but she didn't move and when he made to put his hands on her shoulders she told him to stop. He didn't have to ask why, the question was in the air between them.
"It's not me Mamoru." She spoke softly but the wind carried her words back to his ears. "All those feelings, those emotions that I crave so much, they aren't for me Serena Celeste they're for your Usagi and I am not her, nor will I ever be." The words came to her from that same place that answers did in her heart but she felt them as she said them and they were her own. Still she was unaware of the double meaning they meant for Mamoru yet they were the right words, words he needed to her. "You love her with a single-mindedness that I will always envy and always feel but I can't let you pretend that they're for me because one day you'll realize that they're not and then where will we be?" She asked turning around to face him managing yet again to stay just out of his touch.
Mamoru felt the words strike his heart, he could see the truth in them double meaning and all but he wanted to not care. He knew he could love this other person she had become, love her as much as he had loved his Usagi but that wasn't being fair to her and eventually, although he didn't want to believe it, it would end. He never touched her that night and it almost felt as though he had. Serena looked up at him with the moonlight illuminating his face chasing away any bit of dark that was normally there. She memorized his features and knew she would remember them in acute detail for the rest of her life, just as he would remember hers. Then the clouds came and covered the moon and the moment was lost. She turned away to bury her face in the roses and he turned away looking out over the lake at the couple who were bringing their rowboats in for the night. This was how Amanda found them later both aware of each other but purposely ignoring whatever there was between them.
The plane was delayed for another two hours, and the Donnelley's and Serena groaned when they saw the monitor change their new departure time. The reason was obvious out the windows they could see that it was nearly a monsoon out there and there were few people who weren't under cover and those few she felt very sorry for. Amanda went to call their parents and let them know what was going on and that they were safe but they didn't feel safe, especially Serena, who jumped every time the thunder filled the terminal. Serena's skin prickled, she guessed because of all the electricity in the air, but she couldn't help but feel very uneasy about what was going on around them. The few people she had heard talking about the weather had said that they'd never had a storm at this time of year especially with such ferocity, and the weather channel had said that they'd never even seen the storm coming, which was unusual in and of itself.
Three lightning strikes hit in rapid succession and Serena fought down a scream in the sudden silence that reigned thereafter. Everyone was looking around, apparently they heard nothing as well and outside the rain had stopped although the clouds looked just as troubled. Serena thought she saw another flash of lightning and made to cover her ears then froze as the same light shined again. She'd seen that once before and it had nothing to do with lightning. Quickly she made her way to the window to look outside, but there were other people there too. She found a child that she was taller than so she could see over his head and after a moment she knew she was right.
"The Senshi." She remarked to herself. Amanda had followed her and asked her what that meant. Serena just shook her head and tried to make the figures out better but it was hard as the fog and clouds kept trying to block them off. Something urged her to find a better view and she looked around and found that the arm of the terminal wound that direction and if she followed it she could get closer. When Amanda and the others weren't looking she took off in that direction wondering at herself the entire time. Closer she got but her view was worsened by the airplanes grounded by the storm. Customer service agents were going in and out wondering at the strange behaviour of the weather and watching closely she managed to slip outside behind one when no one saw. She knew this was against the law but if she was caught they weren't going to throw her in jail.
After sneaking around the airplanes Serena was finally close enough that she could hear as well as see what was really going on. All of the Senshi were there and the knight as they battled a fierce creature and it's little miniature copies that were very near as powerful as he was. Again the older Senshi were using their more powerful attacks bolstered by the others but to no avail. Every time they managed to take out some of the minis the big one got in a hit that would leave them stumbling in their tracks. The Senshi with long blond hair was fumbeling with something red and gold in her hands. She kept waving it about but getting no results. A mini struck her off guard and she was thrown to the ground nearly at Serena's feet and seeing Serena there she turned white as a ghost but Serena wasn't paying attention.
The sceptre in her hands, for that was the only thing it could be, looked oddly familiar and Serena longed to reach out and touch it her fingers fairly itching to do so. One of the others called the Senshi by Serena's feet Venus and Venus got to her feet to go back to the battle. She looked down at the sceptre in her hands and deciding it was useless put it on the ground by Serena and giving the girl one more look she leapt back into the fray. Now Serena found herself drawn to the piece of metal and making sure no one was watching she picked it up and weighed it in her hands. It had to be real metal, it was much heavier than it looked and all the gems winked at her and caught the few bits of light that make it through the clouds. Serena found herself mesmerized by them and would have been entranced if it hadn't been for an odd pain on her chest. She lowered the sceptre to look down her shirt and see her brooch on it's chain trying to burn her. She lifted it up by it's chain careful of the hot metal but when she touched it was cool and settled into her palm as though it were made to go there.
A masculine cry made her look away from her two pieces of odd jewellery and Serena gasped to see that the knight was sporting a wound to his leg as he leapt out of the way of a mini that had his blood on one of it's hands. He landed a little ways away from her and Serena found herself making her way towards him without even considering that she shouldn't be here. The man was hissing with pain as he sheathed his sword and looked at the tear in his pants leg and the wound beneath. A footstep fell behind him and without a second thought he had unsheathed his sword and levelled its tip at the nose of the person who had tried to come up behind him. He almost dropped his sword when he saw the look of sheer terror on the face of his beloved.
"SERENITY! What are you doing here?" He asked his mind preoccupied enough to let the name slip. He had decided to stop remembering her as Usagi or Usako and call her by the name her mother had given her if only in his mind. That had been the plan.
"It's you isn't it Mamoru." She said recognition in her voice for the first time since they'd met again. She frowned not giving him a chance to respond. "No, that's not right. Endymoin that's your name just as mine is Serenity." She seemed to be talking to herself but Endymoin was enthralled by her words. She looked up at him with a clarity in her eyes that he hadn't seen before. "I couldn't remember my name. They asked, and I almost remembered, but I couldn't." She said curiously.
"Why couldn't you remember?" He asked softly not wanting to break her out of the moment especially if it meant she wouldn't remember.
"Hmm.. it wasn't time. Usagi Tsukino was no more and I wasn't ready to be Serenity yet, so I became Serena to give myself a chance to rest, to grow and to learn enough about the world that I could become whoever it is I'm supposed to be." She was amused by that thought. "I buried my previous identity deep inside so I could be free for a time."
"Free of me." Endymoin said. It wasn't a question it was a fact and Serenity looked at him full on and he stopped talking.
"Yes and no. I needed to be free of the person that you and the other Senshi had made me become. I couldn't hide behind my ignorance forever but without a rather rude and possibly hazardous wake up call I wasn't going to change. You forced me to change, Endymoin, by pushing me away and I needed that push whether I wanted it or not." She sighed then thinking back to that day when she had been so forcibly awaken enough so that she had to take over her poor Usagi's self. Now she was Usagi, Serena and Serenity all in one and she would use the experiences of all three to become what she must.
"I'm sorry Serenity for the words and the actions, you can't understand how sorry I am." He started saying but she held up his hands and grasped him in that gaze of hers.
"That's not true, I know how sorry you are, I know the pain you felt because you and I are of one heart and what you felt I felt as well while I slumbered. Then you revealed it to me again last night overcoming one of the most difficult obstacles we will ever face. You were able to love me even though I wore a different face and had a different name and that is something we can never lose. I know that you never meant those words, I think I knew it then as well although not that the cause was those retched dreams from the future." She didn't miss his look of surprise but the time of explanation was not now. Now it was time for her to act but looking at the brooch in her palm she felt at a loss. Never in any of her lives had she ever seen the brooch in this configuration even though the soul of its power was still inside. There were words, just under the surface of her mind, the words of transformation she needed but they would not come to her no matter how she sough them and so she stopped searching and focused her mind on the power inside herself to make the transformation to Princess Serenity.
The others had been continuing the battle oblivious to the conversation taking place between their Prince and Princess but they were able to see that the Storm Master's attention was divided and using that distraction they were able to take out almost all of his Minis. They regained his attention when they attacked him full force but it seemed that none of their powers were enough to stand up to his. Just as the first thought of defeat crossed their minds the winds stopped and the clouds seemed to pause in the places, which is impossible for clouds to do, and the Storm Master froze in his attack just as the Senshi froze as well. A white light, purer than any they had seen in a long time, began flooding the airfield it's source lost in it's brightness.
When the light receded Princess Serenity stood in it's stead but she was not the same Princess they had seen save them several times before although she was just as regal and just as powerful. Her hair had not re-grown to the length to which they were accustomed and her eyes no longer had the same innocence they'd once held. Instead was a ferocity and an intensity no one on the field had seen before save Prince Endymion who could remember his past lives as Serenity now seemed able to do. He had seen that look once before and knew that it bode ill for whoever was in it's path. In a floating walk Princess Serenity glided out from under the protection of the hanger and strode right at the Storm Master who was still shocked frozen. He had not expected the sort of opposition a woman of this power would present and he tried to gather strength from his storm but that was impossible as she had done something to it he couldn't understand.
The Senshi were as shocked to see their Princess striding towards them as the monster itself but they recognized her all the same as well as the power she wielded. As Princess Serenity she had no attacking powers of her own and could only wield the power of the crystal in a direct form. If she used it to much it would draw it's power from her itself eventually killing her which is why she had been given the Sailor Moon transformation as a protection. They were rather shocked to see her approach the monster in her current form but their minds were put at ease when she raised her moon sceptre instead of the moon broach. She didn't give the monster a chance to make any moves or any decisions and without her usual wand waving and special speeches she blasted it into the dust it had arisen from. Then she tucked the sceptre away where it belonged and changed back into the Serena they had known for two weeks.
Following her example the other changed back into themselves under the protection of the hanger where no one could see them, everyone that is except Endymion. He stood there watching Serenity like a hawk as she stood for a long moment looking at the spot where the creature had been. After that moment passed she walked up to him and held out her hand asking for one of his roses. Endymion looked a little lost but gently handed one to her careful of it's dangerous tip and thorns. As she held it the white of the rose slowly bleed into the full deep rich red that his roses had been until her disappearance. She along with the others watched its transformation and once it was pure she sniffed it delicately then tossed it without looking at the rather large pile of dust on the runway. The clouds had begun clearing up but the winds had yet to resume so the dust was untouched. The rose imbedded itself in the pile and after a moment the pile started to get smaller and smaller and the rose shrank in size as well until they both disappeared altogether. Serenity watched it happen with her cool calculating eyes then when it was gone she turned to look back at Endymoin her eyes searching his.
Endymion didn't know what to think of her performance, he thought that maybe it was a test to prove that she was fully able to handle his powers as well as her own, which as he recalled she'd been able to do on the moon kingdom as well but whatever it's purpose he no longer cared when found himself under the scrutiny of the woman he loved. At that moment Love was not a strong enough word for the emotion that rushed through him for he not only loved her but he cherished her with every fiber of his being and knew that his soul would never rest if she was every away from him. He reached for her and there she was as she launched herself into his arms and into an embrace that made those observing blush and turn away because it was something so private they felt embarrassed to be witnessing it.
Once they had realized that Serena was no longer with them the Donnelley's had followed her path down to the side of the terminal although they did not go outside as she had. Instead they watched as she talked to the man in uniform who seemed oddly familiar to all of them, then changed into a woman they barely recognized. They stood there silently as she finished off whatever the creature was that had been fighting the figures outside then watched as they all changed back into the people they had come to know. Amanda nearly cheered when she saw her foster sister fling herself into the man who was obviously Mamoru although he hadn't changed back yet then made the boys look away as it was something not for them to witness. Then as she watched them cling together as the sun broke through she felt a twinge of sorrow and knew her sister would not be returning home with them although a sister of heart they would remain forever. As though sensing her thought the girl she had known as Serena pulled back from her knight and looked up into the terminal where the Donnelley's stood. A word or two was spoken down below and the knight shimmered and in his place stood Mamoru Chiba looking just as sorrowful as Amanda felt. The group made their way into the terminal by means none of them saw and it was the ten of them against the three Donnelleys. Amanda felt outnumbered as they stood in front of each other the women fanning out behind Serena and Mamoru according to height so they could all see the Donnelley's faces.
"My name is Serenity." Serenity started first taking a step forward but not letting go of the hand of her beloved. "But in Japan I was known as Usagi Tsukino I disappeared during an airplane accident and was presumed dead. When a year later I showed up on the coast of Hawaii I had no clue as to who I was or where I was from and having been gone so long there was no one to claim me." She struggled there not sure how to explain so much in only a few words. Mamoru took the step that separated them giving her his bodily support and Serenity looked at him with a soft smile of thank you.
"Let's go get something to eat, there's no point in standing around here to talk." Adam said, having been the first of the Donnelley's to do so. In response Serenity's stomach growled loud enough for everyone to hear breaking the ice between the groups.
"Same old Usagi."
"Same old Serenity."
"Same old Serena."
"Oh MINA!"
Serenity Usagi Serena Celeste Tsukino stood across the street from the house she had once called home and cherished as a safe haven from all the evils that the world had offered. Now it was a building with fading paint, a hedge that needed trimmed and a car in the driveway parked badly. Serenity had long ago come to the conclusion that it was better for the parents that had given her this home what seemed a lifetime ago think that she was dead. She decided it was better than one day learning that their daughter wasn't really their daughter and loose her a second time but some part of her heart still belonged in this home and that was why she stood here now across the street by her self looking for any glimpse of her family.
"Oni-sama get away from the window." An exasperated voice called and cracked halfway through and Serenity recognized Shingo's voice even though it was obviously changing. A moment later a young boy just entering puberty walked up to the window and leaned over to pick up a little girl almost two years old with dark blond curly hair all over her head and small buns just where they aught to be. Serenity fingered her longer hair nearly shoulder length now as she watched the little girl throw her arms around Shingo's neck and hug him.
"Shingo, bring Usagi downstairs it's almost time for dinner." And as the figures moved away from the window Serenity's heart clenched and tears formed in her eyes. They truly would never forget her even if they would never know that it was she who would be watching over them for the rest of their lives. Serenity felt an arm wrap around her waist only seconds after she registered Endymoin's presence and she decided not to be mad that he had followed her after he had promised that he wouldn't. She needed his strength and his support just as he needed her.
"They named her Usagi, and gave her my room." She whispered softly watching the house even though there was no one to be seen and Endymion pulled her closer and planted a kiss on her head.
"What a beautiful name." He whispered back and she let him turn her away as they headed home.