Author's Notes: And so the revisions continue. I've been trying to fix all of those old errors like misspelled names, Americanizations, etc, so if you spot any, let me know.

Also, if you happen to have a copy of V&J #3, could you please email it to me? I know a few people out there may have it, but I don't have it on archive anywhere that I can find, unfortunately.

Oh, and I just want to thank you for reading. If you've made it 14 chapters into this story, you certainly deserve my thanks

Disclaimer goes here (Sailor Moon).

The Rebound Effect
Arc 2: Chapter 3 (formerly Part 14)
Memories of the Way We Were

For three days, Taika had been contemplating her meeting with Jadeite. Something was definitely going on beyond what she would have originally suspected, and she had a nagging feeling that she should have knows what it was. She hadn't taken the matter to Serenity yet because she was still so uncertain about everything. Besides, she was certain that she would get a Look for going out with him in the first place. Her cheeks reddened at the thought. Serenity was always one for being judgmental in areas where she didn't want herself to be judged.

By the time Friday evening rolled around, she had decided that facing the music and telling everything to her Queen might be the best idea. However, on her way to the Tsukino home, she ran into the man who had been haunting her thoughts.

"Ah, Hino-san, how nice to see you again," he said with a broad smile on his face, once more wrapped in his American disguise. "I've been wanting to see you ever since we were interrupted. I really must make it up to you."

"Now, Fujii-san," Taika replied in what she hoped was a happy voice. In less time than it had taken him to greet her, she had pierced his illusions and gleaned a view of his aura. That guttering spark of humanity was still there, she saw with some relief, and it may even have been a little brighter. "You don't have to do that! I had a wonderful time, and I perfectly understand that you had other things to attend to."

"But, I insist!" he proclaimed, his own smile completely unforced. "There is a romantic cruise this weekend, and I've been asked to fill in for the regular captain. I insist that you come and join us. It'll be lots of fun."

Somewhat fragmented memories flashed through Taika's mind. If this time line was mimicking her own, then this would be Jadeite's last gambit. That meant that it would be her only chance to attempt what she felt needed to be done. "Oh, Fujii-san, I just can't say no to an offer like that, can I?"

He produced a ticket and pressed it into her hand. "Boarding starts at seven Saturday night, but if you show up early, I'll give you a tour of the ship."

"I'd like that," she said. With this new turn of events, she decided that Serenity could be told afterwards. Sometimes it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. /Besides,/ she thought. /I can handle him if things get rough. I think./

It was only by chance that Serenity had been walking along the same street as Taika. She had known something was bothering her friend and had thought to make a visit to the shrine to see if everything was okay. As it were, Serenity had spotted Taika a few seconds after Jadeite. She would have walked over to say hello, but she noticed the blond man Taika was talking to. Figuring it for a romantic rendezvous, she quickly got out of sight and watched the meeting transpire.

Frustrated at having chosen a hiding place that was too far away to hear anything, she worked a sight clarifying spell so she could at least see him better. It worked and she soon had a clear view of a handsome man apparently in his twenties. The spell also had the side effect of piercing his illusion and she recognized him almost immediately.

/What's Rei doing meeting with Jadeite,/ she wondered, trying to puzzle out what was going on. /And what's she so happy about? This is probably another one of his traps, though why he would target her, I don't know./

She decided that this needed an explanation. She waited for the two to go their separate ways and then followed Taika for a block or so before making her presence known.

"So, have a hot date?" she asked, coming up behind her friend quietly.

"Umm..." Taika stammered, surprised that Serenity had been able to sneak up on her. "What are you talking about."

"That blond man you were just talking to... you do know that he's Jadeite, don't you?"

"Yeah," Taika frowned at being caught, though it was almost a relief in some ways. "I know... I know that I shouldn't be letting him get near me, but there's something strange about him. His soul seems trapped by darkness and I need to know why."

Serenity sighed. "Listen, Rei-chan, there is something that Endymion and I never told you girls... When Endymion was being controlled by Beryl, he kept having these flashes of memory about the Generals. They were part of the Silver Millennium, too. But we think that they were corrupted by Beryl's power. Just as Endymion was. He said that once he saw Kunzite almost break through her control, but she snapped it back immediately."

"The Silver Millennium? But who were they? I don't remember..." but she did. Something vague about Jadeite and her. It was like so many of the other memories that had never come back to her, vague and fleeting unless you knew exactly what to look for. She focused in on the image she had of Jadeite and found an image of the two of them, walking through a park, arm in arm. "I... I think we were in love."

Serenity embraced her friend gently. "I'm so sorry that we couldn't save them before."

"That's... okay," Taika said sadly. "We can save them now."

At lunch the next day, Umino Gurio was staring at the two tickets to the romantic cruise he had won in a raffle, trying to figure out how he was going to get Taika to go with him. If his one-sided relationship with Usagi had taught him anything, it was how NOT to go about it. However, knowing that only left him on unfamiliar ground.

He was still thinking when Serenity sat down beside him. "What do you have there? Oh, tickets to tonight's romantic cruise."

"Yeah, so?"

"You're thinking about asking Taika, aren't you?"

Umino almost jumped out of his seat. Serenity was Taika's friend, and she seemed the type to be overly protective. "W-well, so what if I am? It's none of your business."

"Come on, I'm your friend," she said with a smile that made him at least want to believe it. "And I happen to know that Taika's already got a date. But I don't think she really wants to be with him, Umino-san."

"Oh, and who would do you think she would rather be with?"

"You."

Umino's eyes grew a little larger in shock and he laughed nervously "R-really?"

"Yeah, she just doesn't know about it yet." Serenity offered him another winning smile. "Why don't you just take me tonight and I'll see what I can do."

Serenity made everyone aware that the romantic cruise that night was going to be a Senshi attended event, though she left everyone to find their own tickets.

Usagi still hadn't managed to find tickets for the cruise by that night. Rei and Ami were going with a pair that Ami's mother had given her in a vain attempt to get the girl to ask someone out. Usagi had a feeling that Ami's mother had definitely not intended for her to take another girl, but, then again, she may have been ecstatic to find her daughter going out at all. Makoto and Minako had managed to worm their way into dates, even if they didn't really like they guys they were with. The elder Senshi, Mamoru and Endymion were apparently all adept at finding their way onboard, tickets or not.

That just left Usagi and Luna standing on the pier watching everyone else go past. "Luna, are you sure there isn't some way to sneak on board? I've got to get in there."

Luna seemed lost in thought for a few minutes then suddenly perked up. It wasn't often that she got asked to help, and even less often that she actually could. "Yes, the Lunar Disguise Pen." Luna did a backflip and the pen popped into being.

"That's great..." Usagi began. "But how do I use it?"

"Just hold it up and say 'disguise power make me a' and whatever you want to look like."

"Ah, okay," she said, a little doubtfully. Sometimes she wondered why all of their magic talismans had to have such silly activation phrases. Nevertheless, she whipped the pen up above her head. "Disguise Power! Make me a cute camera girl." Nothing seemed to happen. "Did that work?"

"Yes, it certainly did. Take a look at yourself."

Usagi looked down at herself and found that her clothing had changed and she now had a camera around her neck. "Neat!" She picked up Luna and placed her gently into the camera bag that had appeared as part of the disguise and went to find a way onboard.

Taika had shown up early as requested, hoping to get a chance to confront Jadeite before things went too far. Her hopes, however, were dashed when she found that he was too busy making preparations for the evening's festivities to give her the tour he had promised.

It was a disappointment, but nothing that she couldn't live with. She knew she would get her chance later, given all of the extra attention Jadeite had been directing her way.

She spent most of the early evening wandering the ship and marveling at the strength of the illusions that Jadeite had created around the old barge. It took a fair amount of effort for even her practiced eyes to pierce them, and there was no telling how much energy he had been forced to expend to make them so strong. The paltry disguise magics he used on himself certainly didn't indicate that he would have this level of skill. Then again, it was always harder for a sorcerer to disguise himself than to disguise just about anything else. It went with the strong sense of self that magics required, usually.

Finally, other people started to wander on board, but that didn't help her mood much. She purposefully avoided the younger Senshi, and virtually everyone else was there as part of a couple. Seeing people happy together was never one of her favorite things, not when her life was filled with so much loneliness.

She sighed deeply and rested against the railing, watching the sun gently set over the bay. The beautiful moment seemed hollow since it was the perfect sort of moment to share with someone else.

She was brought out of the near trance that she had fallen into by a bouquet of red roses that was being held a half foot in front of her face. With a broad smile, she turned to give Jadeite a hug but found, instead, Umino to be holding the roses.

The intensity of her smile went down a bit, but she managed to avoid loosing it entirely. Umino was persistent, but also slightly delicate. "Oh, hello, Umino."

"Hello, Taika, these are for y-you," he stammered, looking fully ready to be shot down. "You looked so lonely..."

She sighed and accepted the roses. "That's very sweet of you, but you shouldn't have." The roses were nice enough. They were only a little damaged from being held too tightly in a sweaty palm, and they did appear fresh. "Are you here with someone?"

"Usagi's cousin, Serenity, but she disappeared right after we got on board."

Briefly, Taika thought of getting rid of him, but that wouldn't really improve her mood any. He was, after all, at least some kind of person to talk to. He was also kind of sweet, even if he was a bit too nerdy for her tastes.

"Shall we walk for a while?" she asked him. "There isn't anything else to do."

As if hearing her statement, the PA suddenly blared into life and announced the start of the "romantic show" in the reception hall.

"We could go see that romantic thingie."

Taika sighed. "No, romance just doesn't seem to be my thing tonight."

Umino wasn't sure what to make of that statement, but decided to just let it go. Taking a walk with her had been more than he could have dreamed of, so there was no need to push it. Together, they walked the deck for a while, watching the full moon war for dominance with the lights of Tokyo. For Taika, the cool sea breeze seemed to wash away the disappointments and the stress of they day. Companionship, even if it was only Umino, seemed to help a little, too.

/Actually,/ she mused, /when he just keeps quiet for a while, he isn't bad company./

Of course, she knew it couldn't last forever and some part of her brain kept going over and over what she was going to do when Jadeite made his appearance. After a while, the General showed up, still wearing his captain's illusion and asked her to come see something very special he had prepared just for her. She had known it was coming, but some part of her had held out hope that maybe the confrontation would not have to be here with so many innocent bystanders about. If she were wrong, what she was about to do could end up costing many lives.

With a final sigh, she turned to Umino. "I'm going to go with him," she said. Then leaned closer and added, "Please, stay here, where it's safe."

Umino, as well, had known that the beautiful time he was having wasn't meant to last. Nothing like that ever really happened to him. Now she was going off with the captain of the ship no less. She wanted him to stay there, so he would.

"Yes, Taika-san. I'll wait for you here."

Taika smiled and turned to go with Jadeite. Before they were out of sight, however, the implications of her use of the word "safe" sunk in and Umino decided that he needed to follow them. What would make that place safer than any other, after all?

The reception hall was filled with crumpled bodies by the time Usagi finally got there. It was also about half full of Sailor Senshi.

Quickly, Usagi put down Luna, transformed, and took up the point position. She used a quick speech to cover her entrance and buy her a couple seconds to assess the foe.

Water. That's the best way to sum up Youma Tetis.

As the speech ended, she called out, "Mars, Jupiter, attack! Venus, Mercury, ready!"

Sailors Mars and Jupiter began to build up attacks and Youma Tetis screamed for youma to attack. Sailor Venus held an attack ready, but paid only minimal attention to Tetis. A couple of what had once been the crew of the ship changed into vicious black things and leaped forward to attack. Tetis used the distraction to begin building up an enormous ball of water in the palm of her hand.

Mars and Jupiter loosed their attacks, but targeted the new youma instead of Tetis. The weaker creatures were vaporized almost instantly and Usagi called out "Venus! Attack!"

Sailor Venus let loose the Crescent Beam she had been holding, just beyond firing. The shot destroyed most of Tetis's right hand and caused the attack she had been building up to splatter uselessly on the floor.

"Please surrender!" Sailor Moon pleaded, dreading the inevitable answer.

"NEVER!" Tetis screamed as she launched a swarm of water darts at Sailor Moon.

Usagi dove to the side and called out another order. "Mercury! Disable!"

Sailor Mercury quickly summoned forth the Shabon Spray to wrap around Tetis and disrupt her concentration before she could try anything else. Sailor Moon got to her feet as quickly as she could manage and took off her tiara.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The glowing disc vaporized the trapped youma and the Senshi breathed sighs of relief. They had managed to pull off the new team drills without too much trouble.

A single person began applauding and they turned to find Serenity standing in the door watching them. "Very nice, but it might be a good idea if you hurry on up to the deck and see if Taika needs any help. She's probably fighting Jadeite by now."

The Senshi exchanged glances and bolted out the door in search of the elder Mars.

Jadeite didn't waste much time. He led her straight to a slightly hidden area of the deck a bit fore of the place where he had found her and Umino.

Taika, for her part, followed along a few paces behind him, trying to build up her courage for what she was going to have to attempt. She ran out of time more quickly than she had hoped.

Jadeite spun around and let his illusion drop. "Make this easy on yourself and just surrender. I promise that I'll make your death quick."

"What? No long speech about how you're going to rule the world after I'm dead?"

Jadeite, more than a little put off when Taika failed to show any surprise at his transformation grumbled, "How about: After I kill you, your little friends will be next and then Queen Beryl will be free to take over the world! Good enough? I just know that Queen Beryl wants you dead and what Queen Beryl wants, she gets."

"Don't I get an explanation of why, at least?" Taika carefully tapped into the flows of elemental fire and prepared herself for what would come next. She took extra care to make her actions difficult to detect.

"Have it your way. You're the moon princess. You oppose the Dark Kingdom. You must die. That good enough?" The edge in his voice made it clear that he was getting fed up with her banter.

"Well, I've been a lot of things in my time, but I've never been a moon princess."

"At this point, I don't really care. Bringing her your head will buy me some time, at least. Tetis has gone and gotten herself killed and I'm not exactly going to get a warm welcome when I get back if I don't have SOMEONE's head."

Taika could see that Jadeite was beginning to get desperate and decided that she'd had enough banter and transformed. She didn't transform the way the younger Senshi transform, by calling out the activation phrases that would start a transformation sequence programmed into their Senshi identities thousands of years before. She transformed by weaving the magics manually. While it wasn't as flashy as the normal transformation sequence, it was certainly a lot more menacing.

To the observer, she seemed to be encased in a column of flame through which only her outline was visible. Then the flames died back to reveal her, still in her normal identity, but on fire. The flames melted her features into new ones and her clothing seemed to burn from the edges up, leaving behind the armored sailor fuku.

"Well, one of the Sailor Senshi. I had a feeling that you would prove to be someone useful.

"Jadeite, the power of Mars lies within the cleansing flame. Know also that that power extends to truth." She flipped the specially prepared ward into her hand and charged it with her power. "Know the truth." She leapt toward him, but he dodged back and countered with an energy bolt.

She encased her free hand in a web of flame magic and used it to deflect the attack, sending it to explode harmlessly over the sea a dozen paces overboard. "Stand still," she gritted out between clenched teeth.

Jadeite refused to comply and dodged her second charge and then her third.

"Alight then, I'll just have to slow you down." She stopped her charging and readied an attack. By her standards, Jadeite was rather fragile, and most of the attacks she knew would maim or kill him rather quickly, which forced her to fall back on an old standard. "Burning Mandala!"

Jadeite dodged most of the attack but took a few powerful hits. He fell to the deck flat on his back gasping in pain. Taika wasted no time in slapping the ward on his forehead.

As his body went rigid and tendrils of flame began to dance over his form, she refocused her vision and saw the blackness that was surrounding his soul being torn apart by the energy stored in the ward. First little bits of it came flaking away and then bigger and bigger pieces. The guttering spark of goodness in the middle seemed to brighten a little with each bit of its prison that faded. Finally, his uniform flickered from the dull grey of the Dark Kingdom to the black armor embossed with silver that the Kingdom of Earth had so favored in the Silver Millennium.

It was at that point that the other Senshi arrived on the scene and the illusion that had cloaked the ship fell away, leaving it an old wreck. Serenity stood back, knowing what was coming.

"Jadeite!" Rei shouted and virtually knocked Taika aside in her rush to get to him. She gently cradled his head in her arms and at his unconscious face.

Taika could only gape. Slowly, almost mechanically, she got up and moved over to Serenity.

"You knew." She said it flatly, but the note of accusation was clear in her voice.

Serenity nodded solemnly. "Yes. We restored all of their memories, remember? That had to be one of them."

Taika let the tears that she felt building flow silently down her face. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You had to be the one to do it, only getting close enough to him for his true soul to respond to your memory could you free him. Would you have gone through with it if you had known?"

"Yes. No. Maybe," she furrowed her brow in confusion. She would like to think she would have risked the spell for her younger self. It was all too possible that one of them could have died in the battle. "But that doesn't make it right."

Serenity sighed deeply. "I know. But I've learned that the hard choices rarely end up being right for everyone. Please, try to understand."

"I... I'll try." She turned away. "I just want to be alone right now."

Serenity made no move to stop her as she wandered off across the ruined deck. "Please, understand," she whispered at her friend's retreating form. She turned quickly when she heard the startled cries of the others.

Jadeite was fading out of view.

Quickly, she latched onto him with an anchoring spell and attached something rather nasty to the spell that had been seeking to summon him away. Someone would be in for a big surprise.

Taika wandered off, looking for some place where she could just sit and cry for a while.

Once again, she'd forgotten that her other self already had claims on the things that had truly mattered to her in her previous life. It wasn't fair. Rei got grandpa, Rei got Yuuchiro, Rei got Jadeite. What did Taika get? Nothing.

She got to be alone. Like always.

She found her way over to a sturdy looking patch of railing and leaned against it. Looking out across the moonlit waters served to calm her a bit.

"Taika?" she heard someone ask from behind her. She didn't have to turn around to know that it was Umino.

"Oh, hi, Umino," she sniffled and kept her gaze directed out to sea.

"Taika... are you alright?"

"Me? I'm fine! Never better!" she tried her best to sound convincing, but there was a definite quiver in her voice. "Don't worry about me."

"Umm... here," she heard some rustling cloth behind her and then felt a jacket being set onto her shoulders. "It's a little cold out here, and that thing doesn't look very warn."

For the first time since their conversation had started, Taika realized that she hadn't remembered to change back. And now Umino knew her real identity. What else could go wrong?

She sighed deeply, "So I guess you know."

"Yeah, I followed you and the captain..." he sat down beside her, "you sounded like you were going to do something dangerous and I didn't... I didn't want you to get hurt." He laughed nervously. "I guess I shouldn't have worried."

She willed her clothes to return to normal, and they did. The change back was always less dramatic, particularly when she was doing it manually. Sighing, she let her arm rest around his shoulders lightly. "You know, you're really a sweet guy. You just talk too much."

"I know." He looked despondent for a second or two, but the warmth of her body next to his made it impossible to be anything but happy. "D-don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this. I do know when to keep my mouth shut."

Taika smiled weakly. "Yeah, I guess you do."

"So... Umm... Taika..." Umino's voice was really shaky. "Would you l-like to... um... go out on... a d-d-date or s-something next weekend? I mean, you don't have to... but I'd really like to..."

Taika turned to him and gave him a small smile. "I guess it's time I try for something of my own, isn't it?"

Umino just looked at her, puzzled. Taika giggled. "That was a yes."

Together, they watched the last vestiges of the sunset fade away. Soon, they were replaced by the search lights of rescue boats, and life was back to normal. Well, as normal as things got in Juuban.

END