Serena sat staring out the window of her apartment at the streets teaming
with people. They were all so busy and wrapped up in their own lives to
notice a lone blonde watching them. It was moments like this that made the
girl who was Sailor Moon feel her fate or destiny or whatever you wanted to
call it the strongest. Somehow this scene seemed like the perfect metaphor
for her life. A lonely vigil over all of humanity. She knew that she was
no longer alone in her vigil but it was had at moments like this to
remember that.
The phone's ringing shattered her quiet reflections, and Serena reached over from her perch on the window sill to grab the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Is this Ms. Tsukino?"
"Yes." Serena answered, expectation a sales pitch at this point.
"Oh good. This is Mrs. Mizuno. You called me about a month ago about the class reunion. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been helping out a friend of mine start up a new free clinic in Nigeria for the past two months and I only got home this week."
"Really? Wow. We had assumed that we had a wrong phone number for you." Serena said, trying frantically to remember the lie that they had made up to tell Ami's mother to get information of her whereabouts. They had chosen a class reunion because it was the easiest to explain.
"Is there still time to give you Ami's address?" the woman on the other end of the line asked, "I know she would love to come if she can."
"Yea, the reunion isn't for awhile still. We wanted to give people plenty of time to plan ahead."
"That's great. Here, I'll give you Ami's phone number along with her address, though if you call it'll be long distance. She's going to med school in Germany these days."
Serena almost hit her head against the wall. Germany! Of course Ami was in Germany. The only reason she hadn't gone there before was because of the scouts. She should have remembered that.
As she wrote down the phone number and address, she had to smile. Her scouts sure did get around when they weren't fighting monsters. Darien had gone to America, Mina to London and now Ami was in Germany.
And she couldn't even keep them in this country once they were fighting evil monsters. Darien had gone back to America to visit his friends for a couple week. Part of her morose mood was due to the fact that she hadn't seen him for awhile. Rei was out of town at one of Chad's concert's for a long weekend and last she had heard, Mina was flying into Paris to go to some sort of fashion conference. This meant that there was no one to call to tell the good news to.
Serena smiled even larger as she hung up the phone. She was getting spoiled. One weekend without any of her friends or Darien and she was moping like it was the end of the world. What had happened to that fiercely independent woman that had stood in her place less than a year ago? She knew what had happened, that woman had decided that independence was all well and good but it was a whole lot nicer to be able to depend on others.
And she was even getting part of her family back. She had talked to Sammy every week since she had run into him at the grocery store. It had been a little awkward at first but her brother was an amazing kid. He told her stories about what was going on in his life that made her laugh till it hurt and had a way of making it seem like nothing had ever separated them. He was still obviously her little brother, for he had a little brother's knack of instinctively knowing how to irritate her to no end, and in a perverse sort of way she had missed that part of having a family as well.
Well, she might as well go to Germany and track down Ami. That way she would have more to tell the others when they all came back.
Serena grabbed a large duffel bag out of her closet threw pair of jeans and a couple shirts in it along with her tooth brush and a couple extra hair bands. And that was it. Serena grinned. Traveling was a whole lot cheaper when you just teleported everywhere rather than dealing with airports and trains.
* * * * *
Serena checked into a cheap hotel for the night and grabbed a local map of the area from the city's tourist information center. She also picked up a few other brochures on the local sights. After all, how often was she in Germany?
Grabbing her purse and keys, she caught the local bus down to where Ami was living and decided to check that out first. It was a little hard to get around. She had never been good at learning foreign languages. Her English was horrible but it was a whole lot better than her German. When they had gone looking for Mina, it had been Darien who had done most of the talking to the locals. After living in America, he had been the logical choice for interpreter. But now she was by herself in Germany. Luckily, most of the people were understanding and patient with her as she tried to figure out which bus went where.
Finally she got to Ami's neighborhood. It was actually on the fringes of the university's campus. The address Ami's mother had given her led to a two story house with four bikes parked on the front porch.
A woman sat reading from a huge book on the porch railing as Serena approached.
"Guten Tag!" the woman chirped happily when she noticed Serena.
"Hallo...ist Ami heir?" Serena struggled to ask if her friend was there in the weird language.
"Nein." The girl said, shaking her head before saying something else too fast for Serena to have any hope of catching and made a few vague gestures towards the school campus that Serena hoped meant that Ami was at class, or the library or something.
"Danke." Serna said politely, trying not to show just how little of that entire conversation she had understood. The woman didn't seem to notice her confusion and went back to reading.
Serena then began the hike towards the school. The campus was beautiful. There were trees everywhere and students lounged about reading text books and taking notes. Serena passed one class of students sitting around their proffessor as he lectured about somthing or other. All along the sidwalks, written in chalk were advertisements for differant activities going on and in the far distance she could hear music playing.
For a second Serena allowed herself the odd thought of what life might have been like if she had been able to go to a university. She had never really felt bad about ending her education until now. There was something about being surrounded with thousands of people your own age, all there to learn, with a feeling of such expectation and hope everywhere...It made her realize for the first time what she might have missed out on and for the first time, she actually regretted that sacrifice.
Just as Serena was about to give up on ever seeing her old friend, she spotted a familiar face and blue hair in the crowds of people. She had actually been looking in the right direction for a while but it had taken some time for her to realize that the woman she was looking at was Ami.
Ami was taller and her old short haircut had allowed to grow out a little, so that it brushed her shoulders. In one hand she carried a laptop computer while her other hand was gesturing to help he make some point to the woman she was walking with. Neither one noticed the man running after them. But Serena notice.
And if it had taken her a minute to recognize Ami, she recognized immediatly.
Serena watched in shock as a man she had defeateded once came up behind Ami and hugged her around the waist, surprising a squeak out of her. Zoisite. But...he was dead. Killed by the queen he had served for his failure to kill her. How could he be alive?
Serena remembered more now than she had the first time she had met Zoisite on Earth. With her second rebirth she had remembered the painful things that her mother had tried to keep from her child and her child's friends. Things about Beryl's four Generals and the last days of the Moon. But she wasn't sure how much Rei and Mina, or even Darien remembered. The pens that she and Luna had made for the scouts were rather crude compared to what her mother had once been able to do. She couldn't pick and choose what the scouts would remember. And Darien's memory had come from himself, from his own soul. But she had been a coward, unwilling to ask the painful questions.
And now one of the very things that made their past on the Moon so painful was hugging Ami, whispering into her ear and making her laugh. Why was he alive? And if he was alive, were the others? Serena frantically thought of her final battle with Beryl. She had made a request of the Silver Crystal, to restore her friends to life and...to make them happy. Had the crystal somehow brought back their old lovers as well as the scouts in order to make them happy? Was this her fault? Was this even a bad thing?
Her scouts had once loved those men as much as she had loved Darien. On the Moon, as Beryl had kept up the attack on the galaxy, devouring planet after planet, till only the Earth and the Moon were still free from attack, she had managed to get a hold of Darien's Generals and turned them against their own people. She had done it to try and get at Darien, who was to be her ultimate prize but the added hurt to the inner planet's Princesses and guardians had been an extra bonus to her.
How would her scouts react to hearing that their one time lovers and betrayers were alive? After Darien had been taken from her so long ago she had been ready to move mountains to get him back but it was that very betrayal that had helped her to let him go when he hadn't remembered after their rebirths. An irrational part of her had feared that letting him get close again would only result in another betrayal. But later her love for that man had overridden all else.
But would it be the same for her scouts? Their betrayals were so much worse in so many ways, the Generals having been with Beryl for so much longer than Darien and both sides having died...a couple times. And then there were the Generals themselves. Did they remember anything? Could she restore their memories and if she could, should she?
Suddenly she was very glad that the others had all been busy this weekend and none of the others even knew where Ami was. Because suddenly awakening Mercury had more ramifications than it had had before and she needed to think about this for awhile before telling the others. She needed time.
* * * * *
Down in a cavernous room, the pervading darkness was broken by a circle of five lights, floating around the edges of a circle outlined in black fire. Inside the circle of fire was a woman sitting cross legged with her gray cloak spread around her, hiding all of her but her head from the two men watching from the outside the circle. Above her head floated a Black stone, pulsing slowly with the power that was slowly being forced into it.
"How much longer is this going to take?" snared the younger of the two men.
"Patience. This is delicate work and cannot be rushed."
"Patience? She has been in there for over a week now. She'll die of starvation if nothing else before she is able to finish this."
"She knew what this would entail before she started. Do not think for one moment that she would go into something this important ill prepared. She is doing something that neither you nor I could do. Now let her do it. And worry about doing your part.."
"I don't understand why I am still harvesting energy." grumbled the young man.
"Because, this is only phase one. The crystal's energy reserves will need to be replenished as we use them against Sailor Moon. And I want that energy to be available immediately. Sailor Moon has already proven herself a powerful enemy. I will not give her the chance to defeat us again." the elder of the two said, glaring at the other man, a cold wind beginning to circle him.
"I hope that this is worth all the effort." The younger man said, finally dropping his eyes in the face of the elder's wrath.
Stalking away angrily, he left the older man watching the woman alone, in silent vigil.
* * * * *
Hey all! Sorry, I know it took me forever to write this. But I was a break and my coputer wasn't on-line and I had no time because I was working so please don't yell at me. I promise to do better.
Anyways, on to my responses to the poeple I love ;)
lazzykane ~ thanks for the patience! I probably used up too much though. I'll be getting more into the family later on. AH! Too many ideas for one story.
Marni ~ I'm glad that I posted more too.
Sailor Midnight ~ I hope you like this new chapter too.
SlvrDrgn ~ yea, well, the kitties are at least together. I'm just glad people approved of separrating them again and didn't yell at me too much
Adyen ~ thanks for the awsome 'no comment'. I know that feeling. You want to review a story but you just don't know what to say. Thanks for trying!
silver wolf ~ congrats! You figured out where Ami was. As to where Lita is...well...that's still a secret. But she's out there. I promise.
Random Reader ~ lol. I love that name. Glad you like the story so far. I'm trying to make it feel at least a little like the show with each chapter kinda like an episode but I couldn't write SM like the show. She needed to be a little less clutsy for me. So I'm really glad people aren't giving me a hard time for it.
Shinigami ~ Well, it was actually you review that made me start explaining how much Serena remembers of the Silver Millennium. See, that why reviews and reviewers rock.
BenRG ~ thanks for the rating. lol. I hope your not too disappointed with Ami being the next scout but Lita will actually be pretting difficult for them to track down. But thanks to your review I have this awsome scene idea for Lita fighting that I can't wait to write. I'll try to do more detail in the battles. I agree I don't have a lot there but I have a hard time making the fights unique. Ah well, something for me to work on.
Ambre Wisniewski ~ Thanks for the heads up about SM being brought out by ADV. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.
Codie ~ ack! Sorry, I feel bad for taking so long to write with such awsome reviews like yours. Way to guilt trip the author into writing more.
Moon Wonderer ~ I'm so glad that you liked the details about Serena and Dariens relationship. I was a little worried people would be bored.
millyvanilly ~ Ack! I know my grammer needs help. I get all excited while writing and my typing skills aren't quite up to the speed of thought. I promise to fix anything you point out to me.
Venus Smurf ~ hey!!! Don't worry, I feel strongy for characters all the time. As you should know, considering your story Roommate is one of those that I wish I could yell at the characters some times. And I hope your vacation was relaxing!
PrincessSerena66 ~ yea, I remember captain planet. The whole recycle or be beaten up by gaia was great. An Johnny Quest is a great old school cartoon.
Sailor of Shadow ~ hee hee. What can I say, I tend to be inspired by the cookies in front of me. But now they're all gone. How sad.
Silver Dragonfly ~ Hope your break was awsome. If you have any ideas, let me know. Otherwise, I'll be looking at stuff that I've already written here eventually and seeing how I can improve it.
A. Kitana ~ hee hee. Thank you so much. But trust me, I've found some amazing authors here. Compared to them...well, I'm just happy people don't hate me.
tima ~ Ah yea, more people making me feel guilty for not writing faster...ah well, at least you nice about it. And I love all the exclaimation points. :)
Kaji ~ lol, actually, most people seem to be ignoring my villains. I'm glad that you noticed them. They'll be getting bigger roles as the story progresses. And I can not confirm nor deny their identities at this time. Where would the fun be in that?
thaiger ~ *blush* Thank you.
Nutty Colada ~ lol. Thanks for the reviews. I hope you got to read past chapter 3 but I realize this gets long after awhile.
If I missed anyone, i'm sorry. But all these awsome people wrote and it's hard for me the keep track of any number larger than two. lol. Thanks again to eveyone. You all rock!!!
The phone's ringing shattered her quiet reflections, and Serena reached over from her perch on the window sill to grab the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi. Is this Ms. Tsukino?"
"Yes." Serena answered, expectation a sales pitch at this point.
"Oh good. This is Mrs. Mizuno. You called me about a month ago about the class reunion. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been helping out a friend of mine start up a new free clinic in Nigeria for the past two months and I only got home this week."
"Really? Wow. We had assumed that we had a wrong phone number for you." Serena said, trying frantically to remember the lie that they had made up to tell Ami's mother to get information of her whereabouts. They had chosen a class reunion because it was the easiest to explain.
"Is there still time to give you Ami's address?" the woman on the other end of the line asked, "I know she would love to come if she can."
"Yea, the reunion isn't for awhile still. We wanted to give people plenty of time to plan ahead."
"That's great. Here, I'll give you Ami's phone number along with her address, though if you call it'll be long distance. She's going to med school in Germany these days."
Serena almost hit her head against the wall. Germany! Of course Ami was in Germany. The only reason she hadn't gone there before was because of the scouts. She should have remembered that.
As she wrote down the phone number and address, she had to smile. Her scouts sure did get around when they weren't fighting monsters. Darien had gone to America, Mina to London and now Ami was in Germany.
And she couldn't even keep them in this country once they were fighting evil monsters. Darien had gone back to America to visit his friends for a couple week. Part of her morose mood was due to the fact that she hadn't seen him for awhile. Rei was out of town at one of Chad's concert's for a long weekend and last she had heard, Mina was flying into Paris to go to some sort of fashion conference. This meant that there was no one to call to tell the good news to.
Serena smiled even larger as she hung up the phone. She was getting spoiled. One weekend without any of her friends or Darien and she was moping like it was the end of the world. What had happened to that fiercely independent woman that had stood in her place less than a year ago? She knew what had happened, that woman had decided that independence was all well and good but it was a whole lot nicer to be able to depend on others.
And she was even getting part of her family back. She had talked to Sammy every week since she had run into him at the grocery store. It had been a little awkward at first but her brother was an amazing kid. He told her stories about what was going on in his life that made her laugh till it hurt and had a way of making it seem like nothing had ever separated them. He was still obviously her little brother, for he had a little brother's knack of instinctively knowing how to irritate her to no end, and in a perverse sort of way she had missed that part of having a family as well.
Well, she might as well go to Germany and track down Ami. That way she would have more to tell the others when they all came back.
Serena grabbed a large duffel bag out of her closet threw pair of jeans and a couple shirts in it along with her tooth brush and a couple extra hair bands. And that was it. Serena grinned. Traveling was a whole lot cheaper when you just teleported everywhere rather than dealing with airports and trains.
* * * * *
Serena checked into a cheap hotel for the night and grabbed a local map of the area from the city's tourist information center. She also picked up a few other brochures on the local sights. After all, how often was she in Germany?
Grabbing her purse and keys, she caught the local bus down to where Ami was living and decided to check that out first. It was a little hard to get around. She had never been good at learning foreign languages. Her English was horrible but it was a whole lot better than her German. When they had gone looking for Mina, it had been Darien who had done most of the talking to the locals. After living in America, he had been the logical choice for interpreter. But now she was by herself in Germany. Luckily, most of the people were understanding and patient with her as she tried to figure out which bus went where.
Finally she got to Ami's neighborhood. It was actually on the fringes of the university's campus. The address Ami's mother had given her led to a two story house with four bikes parked on the front porch.
A woman sat reading from a huge book on the porch railing as Serena approached.
"Guten Tag!" the woman chirped happily when she noticed Serena.
"Hallo...ist Ami heir?" Serena struggled to ask if her friend was there in the weird language.
"Nein." The girl said, shaking her head before saying something else too fast for Serena to have any hope of catching and made a few vague gestures towards the school campus that Serena hoped meant that Ami was at class, or the library or something.
"Danke." Serna said politely, trying not to show just how little of that entire conversation she had understood. The woman didn't seem to notice her confusion and went back to reading.
Serena then began the hike towards the school. The campus was beautiful. There were trees everywhere and students lounged about reading text books and taking notes. Serena passed one class of students sitting around their proffessor as he lectured about somthing or other. All along the sidwalks, written in chalk were advertisements for differant activities going on and in the far distance she could hear music playing.
For a second Serena allowed herself the odd thought of what life might have been like if she had been able to go to a university. She had never really felt bad about ending her education until now. There was something about being surrounded with thousands of people your own age, all there to learn, with a feeling of such expectation and hope everywhere...It made her realize for the first time what she might have missed out on and for the first time, she actually regretted that sacrifice.
Just as Serena was about to give up on ever seeing her old friend, she spotted a familiar face and blue hair in the crowds of people. She had actually been looking in the right direction for a while but it had taken some time for her to realize that the woman she was looking at was Ami.
Ami was taller and her old short haircut had allowed to grow out a little, so that it brushed her shoulders. In one hand she carried a laptop computer while her other hand was gesturing to help he make some point to the woman she was walking with. Neither one noticed the man running after them. But Serena notice.
And if it had taken her a minute to recognize Ami, she recognized immediatly.
Serena watched in shock as a man she had defeateded once came up behind Ami and hugged her around the waist, surprising a squeak out of her. Zoisite. But...he was dead. Killed by the queen he had served for his failure to kill her. How could he be alive?
Serena remembered more now than she had the first time she had met Zoisite on Earth. With her second rebirth she had remembered the painful things that her mother had tried to keep from her child and her child's friends. Things about Beryl's four Generals and the last days of the Moon. But she wasn't sure how much Rei and Mina, or even Darien remembered. The pens that she and Luna had made for the scouts were rather crude compared to what her mother had once been able to do. She couldn't pick and choose what the scouts would remember. And Darien's memory had come from himself, from his own soul. But she had been a coward, unwilling to ask the painful questions.
And now one of the very things that made their past on the Moon so painful was hugging Ami, whispering into her ear and making her laugh. Why was he alive? And if he was alive, were the others? Serena frantically thought of her final battle with Beryl. She had made a request of the Silver Crystal, to restore her friends to life and...to make them happy. Had the crystal somehow brought back their old lovers as well as the scouts in order to make them happy? Was this her fault? Was this even a bad thing?
Her scouts had once loved those men as much as she had loved Darien. On the Moon, as Beryl had kept up the attack on the galaxy, devouring planet after planet, till only the Earth and the Moon were still free from attack, she had managed to get a hold of Darien's Generals and turned them against their own people. She had done it to try and get at Darien, who was to be her ultimate prize but the added hurt to the inner planet's Princesses and guardians had been an extra bonus to her.
How would her scouts react to hearing that their one time lovers and betrayers were alive? After Darien had been taken from her so long ago she had been ready to move mountains to get him back but it was that very betrayal that had helped her to let him go when he hadn't remembered after their rebirths. An irrational part of her had feared that letting him get close again would only result in another betrayal. But later her love for that man had overridden all else.
But would it be the same for her scouts? Their betrayals were so much worse in so many ways, the Generals having been with Beryl for so much longer than Darien and both sides having died...a couple times. And then there were the Generals themselves. Did they remember anything? Could she restore their memories and if she could, should she?
Suddenly she was very glad that the others had all been busy this weekend and none of the others even knew where Ami was. Because suddenly awakening Mercury had more ramifications than it had had before and she needed to think about this for awhile before telling the others. She needed time.
* * * * *
Down in a cavernous room, the pervading darkness was broken by a circle of five lights, floating around the edges of a circle outlined in black fire. Inside the circle of fire was a woman sitting cross legged with her gray cloak spread around her, hiding all of her but her head from the two men watching from the outside the circle. Above her head floated a Black stone, pulsing slowly with the power that was slowly being forced into it.
"How much longer is this going to take?" snared the younger of the two men.
"Patience. This is delicate work and cannot be rushed."
"Patience? She has been in there for over a week now. She'll die of starvation if nothing else before she is able to finish this."
"She knew what this would entail before she started. Do not think for one moment that she would go into something this important ill prepared. She is doing something that neither you nor I could do. Now let her do it. And worry about doing your part.."
"I don't understand why I am still harvesting energy." grumbled the young man.
"Because, this is only phase one. The crystal's energy reserves will need to be replenished as we use them against Sailor Moon. And I want that energy to be available immediately. Sailor Moon has already proven herself a powerful enemy. I will not give her the chance to defeat us again." the elder of the two said, glaring at the other man, a cold wind beginning to circle him.
"I hope that this is worth all the effort." The younger man said, finally dropping his eyes in the face of the elder's wrath.
Stalking away angrily, he left the older man watching the woman alone, in silent vigil.
* * * * *
Hey all! Sorry, I know it took me forever to write this. But I was a break and my coputer wasn't on-line and I had no time because I was working so please don't yell at me. I promise to do better.
Anyways, on to my responses to the poeple I love ;)
lazzykane ~ thanks for the patience! I probably used up too much though. I'll be getting more into the family later on. AH! Too many ideas for one story.
Marni ~ I'm glad that I posted more too.
Sailor Midnight ~ I hope you like this new chapter too.
SlvrDrgn ~ yea, well, the kitties are at least together. I'm just glad people approved of separrating them again and didn't yell at me too much
Adyen ~ thanks for the awsome 'no comment'. I know that feeling. You want to review a story but you just don't know what to say. Thanks for trying!
silver wolf ~ congrats! You figured out where Ami was. As to where Lita is...well...that's still a secret. But she's out there. I promise.
Random Reader ~ lol. I love that name. Glad you like the story so far. I'm trying to make it feel at least a little like the show with each chapter kinda like an episode but I couldn't write SM like the show. She needed to be a little less clutsy for me. So I'm really glad people aren't giving me a hard time for it.
Shinigami ~ Well, it was actually you review that made me start explaining how much Serena remembers of the Silver Millennium. See, that why reviews and reviewers rock.
BenRG ~ thanks for the rating. lol. I hope your not too disappointed with Ami being the next scout but Lita will actually be pretting difficult for them to track down. But thanks to your review I have this awsome scene idea for Lita fighting that I can't wait to write. I'll try to do more detail in the battles. I agree I don't have a lot there but I have a hard time making the fights unique. Ah well, something for me to work on.
Ambre Wisniewski ~ Thanks for the heads up about SM being brought out by ADV. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.
Codie ~ ack! Sorry, I feel bad for taking so long to write with such awsome reviews like yours. Way to guilt trip the author into writing more.
Moon Wonderer ~ I'm so glad that you liked the details about Serena and Dariens relationship. I was a little worried people would be bored.
millyvanilly ~ Ack! I know my grammer needs help. I get all excited while writing and my typing skills aren't quite up to the speed of thought. I promise to fix anything you point out to me.
Venus Smurf ~ hey!!! Don't worry, I feel strongy for characters all the time. As you should know, considering your story Roommate is one of those that I wish I could yell at the characters some times. And I hope your vacation was relaxing!
PrincessSerena66 ~ yea, I remember captain planet. The whole recycle or be beaten up by gaia was great. An Johnny Quest is a great old school cartoon.
Sailor of Shadow ~ hee hee. What can I say, I tend to be inspired by the cookies in front of me. But now they're all gone. How sad.
Silver Dragonfly ~ Hope your break was awsome. If you have any ideas, let me know. Otherwise, I'll be looking at stuff that I've already written here eventually and seeing how I can improve it.
A. Kitana ~ hee hee. Thank you so much. But trust me, I've found some amazing authors here. Compared to them...well, I'm just happy people don't hate me.
tima ~ Ah yea, more people making me feel guilty for not writing faster...ah well, at least you nice about it. And I love all the exclaimation points. :)
Kaji ~ lol, actually, most people seem to be ignoring my villains. I'm glad that you noticed them. They'll be getting bigger roles as the story progresses. And I can not confirm nor deny their identities at this time. Where would the fun be in that?
thaiger ~ *blush* Thank you.
Nutty Colada ~ lol. Thanks for the reviews. I hope you got to read past chapter 3 but I realize this gets long after awhile.
If I missed anyone, i'm sorry. But all these awsome people wrote and it's hard for me the keep track of any number larger than two. lol. Thanks again to eveyone. You all rock!!!