Author Notes: Another rewrite! You know I'm shocked that everyone voted for this story next, I didn't think it had all that many fans besides the ecstatic Natasha-neechan ; anyway, yeah, this is getting rewritten as well. Hope you enjoy the changes it's gone through, and sorry that the prologue will mainly just be more detailed, no real plot changes yet. But still, the former prologue to me is too thin, it's like a bony structure with no real meat added to it. So let's fix that, na?
Prologue: The Truth
For, endless for in every direction she looked swirled around her like the depths of a murky mirror. It kind of reminded her of the atmosphere of horror movies, but instead of bone-chilling fog, this stuff kind of felt warm.... Was she dreaming? This place couldn't be real... "Where am I?" her words seemed to be swallowed up by the endless fog around her.
"You..." the voice came from somewhere in the distance. Or at least she thought so; it was near impossible to tell in this kind of atmosphere. Cold, harsh, and not sounding too happy... she wasn't in a hurry to meet the owner of that voice.
She turned towards the direction she thought the voice might have come from. "Nani?" she whispered as she vainly tried to peer through the mists. "Who's there?" she was scared. What was going on? If this was a dream why wasn't she waking up? "Answer me!"
She could hear this stranger breathing. She could almost feel his warmed breath upon her skin but when she turned he wasn't there. This wasn't funny anymore. Was it a monster? She winced as she felt the breath again and forced back a shriek. This was only a dream; dreams couldn't hurt you... right?
"Who are you?" she decided at this point the voice was male. Not even Haruka had ever sounded so cold when she had to fight before. She couldn't see him, but she could practically feel him as he circled her. "Who are you?" his voice was closer this time, almost close enough to touch.
A rare streak of bravery hit her. Just who did this guy think he was? How dare he bully her into fearing him and then ignore her question only to repeat it to her. The nerve! "Who am I?" she muttered under her breath as her eyes scanned the fog. "I asked you first!" She doubted such a tactic would actually work, but it was worth a shot in her opinion.
"You're a mere mortal... you shouldn't have been able to call me there." His voice was as cold and impersonal as ever but she could almost swear she felt a vein of fury throbbing in it now. "Who are you? Show yourself at once."
Usagi sighed; this was getting her no where. She was going to have to cooperate to find a way out of this. "My name is Tsukino Usagi...and you are?" she wanted to wake up and find her self safe in bed. Not in this endless sea of fog where a stranger was all but stalking her.
"Rabbit of the moon?" she guessed it was the closest his voice could come to amusement. It didn't help lessen her fear much at all. She was still terrified. "Tell me, moon rabbit, why do I feel the flow and power of the moon emanating from you? It radiates as if you are its master when in reality, I am."
"You're the master of the moon?" she was stumped by his words. She was the reincarnated princess of the moon and had always relied on its powers. Surely this guy was lying, right? "You can't be...you must tell me who you are, I must know."
"Iie," his denial of her plea froze her for a moment. To have such a vehement no given to her... it made her stop and think. "Answer my questions first and then and only then will I reveal my identity to you, moon rabbit."
She sighed not really wanting to give in just yet. "Ne," she softly prodded as she tried to get a glimpse through the fog, "do you know where we are? I can't see a thing..." she tried squeezing her eyes shut and focusing but nothing could help penetrate the swirling darkness. Ah, that was something she hadn't noticed before; this fog was dark not quite black but close.
"Of course, I brought you here to answer my questions. We are in a simple dream, but you can't wake up until my curiosity is satisfied. If you choose not to answer my questions you'll stay in here forever. It makes no difference to me. So answer me, why do you a mere child have powers from the moon?"
Usagi was about to deny any knowledge of the moon when she noticed two bright stones glittering and cutting through the fog. Instantly her mind quit functioning and her eyes become glazed. "I was born on the moon in a previous carnation. I was Princess Serenity of the Silver Millennium, daughter of Queen Serenity. In this life as in that one I've been able to rely on the moon for protection and strength."
"Serenity... I see, that would explain how you looked..." he strode through the mists until he was an outstretched hand away from her. That would explain everything of course. Why she had been able to call on him then... Interesting to say the least... He took another step forward and enfolded the still entranced girl in his arms, bringing her back against his chest and gently resting his chin on top of her head. "So you're still alive..."
Usagi broke out of her trance confused and shaking. What was happening to her? She couldn't remember a thing besides those two glowing orbs, what had happened? She couldn't think at all. Her world was pure black now, the fog had whipped away as if swirled down a drain and everything was silent. She was alone.
"Watch," she could feel the words whispered against her ear but when she turned to confront this stranger there was only a tiny spark of light. She reached out and started to reach for it, as soon as her fingertips touched it her world exploded with color and sound. Bright white blinded her before a hand seemed to appear from behind her and clear it away. "Look," the same voice as earlier commanded as her head was turned towards a scene happening below.
The white flurries that had seemed to attack her in force moments ago appeared once more and whirled violently around the scene below. A woman, no, she was little more than a girl, stood shakily on a giant pillar of ice that had been shattered at the top to form a platform. Her normally flawless white dress was stained with streaks of blood and her body was covered with scratches. Yet, even with these injuries she was bravely facing a foe nearly twenty times her size, and her only weapon was a pink crescent wand. Black energy crackled around the white-clad girl and she was forced to her knees though she never gave up. The energy was racing around her in arcs and constantly breaking off to strike her before returning to the race and powering up more. The girl who was fighting for her vanquished allies was losing badly. The blood staining the ice beneath her seemed to tell the whole story. She was dying.
"But," Usagi shook her head in denial. "NO!" she turned and finally caught a glimpse of the stranger that had brought her here. He was taller than her and had an odd aura around him. He almost felt like an angel, especially with the grey wings that arced from his back. Silver hair pooled down to the ground and was held at the ends by a simple ponytail holder. He had such a mystical quality that she could fully understand why he claimed to be master of the moon. As she heard a scream and plea for help from the girl below she winced and started to turn away, she couldn't bear to watch.
"Don't look away," his eyes narrowed as he watched the events unfold. This girl didn't seem to remember but he remembered it completely. The spark of light that appeared above the princess's head... At that time she had called him to her and started his awakening. And he had responded, when he saw the scene he had saved her using an attack that had cost him much. It had pushed his upcoming awakening back and depleted his powers. Of course he remembered it well. His attack had pierced through the defense of the girl's foe and struck her solidly in the heart, she hadn't stood a chance against his powers.
"You saved me?" Usagi finally tore her gaze away from the scene as the princess swooned and fell to the ground, never noticing her savior. She couldn't believe it, so when she remembered the senshi helping her... Had it all been an illusion brought upon by the fact she couldn't accept their deaths? She realized it now of course, they had been dead, all of them, long before she made it to that fateful fight. So how could the dead save her? But she had felt their powers, she couldn't believe otherwise! But even so... this was the person that had saved her life. "Anno.... What's your name?"
He glanced over at her with a slight frown marring his perfect face. "Yue," he finally commented his eyes still locked on the battlefield. "It's Chinese for moon," he explained his eyes never losing their slightly hard look. "If you're wondering about the spirits that surrounded you, they did try to give you power on that day, but they were weak when compared to a living breathing enemy such as you had to face."
Usagi frowned as she realized something. "Wait... you know who I am?" she almost squeaked in shock. Luna would kill her for revealing that! "But how...? I didn't tell you, did I?" the scene below them had vanished and she realized they were back in the arena of fog. It didn't ease her nervousness one bit. This guy couldn't be an enemy, he had saved her... but how had he known she was Serenity?
"It doesn't matter that I know who you are, what matters is you realize what truly happened that day. You have my thanks for loosening the bonds of sleep that had wrapped around me at that time. Your pleas made them shed and fall off of me. Even though I lost some energy saving you then, I also came closer to my goal. Thank you, moon rabbit."
Usagi forced the other matters out of her mind and genuinely smiled. "So you saved me that day..." she saw him now and smiled more before reaching out and spontaneously hugging him. "Arigato, Yue-san," she thanked with a bright smile and shining eyes.
As soon as her fingers came into contact with him and her last words rang through her ears it was all gone. The fog, the angel, everything... she as alone in her bed and staring at a furious cat, "Luna, what are you doing here?"
Luna sniffed in disdain at her charge. Really, when would the girl start to grow up? Here she was sixteen and still acting like a child and sleeping in until late in the afternoon. No responsibility at all... "I've been trying to wake you up for the last fifteen minutes, Usagi-chan. You're late."
Usagi fairly flew out of bed knocking Luna off in the process. "Oh no! You're right, Luna! I am late!" she darted around her room like a hummingbird on speed as she jerked on her clothes and tied her hair up into sphere-like pigtails. "Thanks for waking me up Luna!" she called over her shoulder and dashed out of the room. She couldn't think about the weird dream right now. Besides, it probably wasn't true at all, how could it have been when that weird Yue person had actually seemed to hug her back? It had to have been a dream; she must have eaten too much junk food before bed. It was the only plausible reason.
Luna rolled her eyes and nimbly jumped back onto the messed up bed. She padded over to the still shrilly shrieking alarm and swatted at it with a paw; turning it off. But... something concerned her greatly. She had heard Usagi whispering all manner of odd things while she had been in such a deep sleep. A sleep she had seen only once before, she had thought a youma had attacked the girl again. She had actually been on the verge of abandoning the effort and getting the girls when the girl had finally broke out of it. Still... why was there such a strange scent rising from Usagi's bed? It kind of reminded her of something she couldn't quite put her paw on... With a feline version of a shrug she curled up on the pillow and stretched out. It didn't matter at the moment, whatever the scent was would come back to her and she could take care of it then .For now she still had some sleep to catch up on.