Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi and Bandai, not to me. This is just a fanfiction to glorify how much I like the characters.

Japanese word definitions:

Sensei- teacher

San- name respect usage

Ohayo- good morning

Mina- everyone

Sama- another name respect usage

Onegai – please

English word definitions:

Feces – body's solid waste, poop

Facetious – not to be taken seriously, not in earnest

Exuberant – full of happy high spirits and vitality

Incessant - continuing for a long time without stopping, unceasing

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Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon – An Alternate Story of Guardians

Prelude 2 – Minako's Present

Minako sighed as she unlocked the door of her house and walked inside. She slipped her shoes off and arranged them carefully by her father's shoes, and then slipped her feet into her orange slippers. As she turned to close the door she noticed a white cat with a strange mark on her head looking in.

"Huh? A cat?" She bent down to get a closer look at it but didn't try to pick it up or anything. She was amazed to see the mark on its head was a crescent moon and that the cat's eyes were a deep sky blue. The cat looked oddly familiar to her, like the cat in her dream the other day. Her birthmark felt hot again too, which it only did when she was about to blank out. She felt her head warily and then studied the odd cat that continued to stare at her.

"Artemis, how long do you plan to stand staring at me?" The cat looked up surprised at the girl and then noticed her eyes were glazed over and the orange mark under her hand glowed brightly.

"Venus-sama, I didn't expect to find you so soon." The cat walked in and bowed to the girl.

"I'm not fully awake yet, Minako is a strong girl. She hasn't realized that we are the same person yet, just that she can't remember things when her mark gets hot. We will have to awaken her as a soldier soon, so that we can finally become whole." Artemis nodded and then was surprised as he felt arms envelope him.

"Onegai, guide her carefully until the day we may both awaken fully to our duty." With the girl's last words the glowing ceased and the girl looked in surprise to see the cat in her arms.

"When did I pick you up, Artemis?" The girl asked in puzzlement as she let the cat down. "Well, I guess it won't hurt to have another individual to take care of. Come on, Artemis, I have to check on Papa." Artemis followed her, wondering how the Venus persona of Minako had imparted his name over to her without her get suspicious.

The cat and girl walked up the stairs to the darkest part of the hall, where Minako stopped to knock on the door. "Papa, I'm coming in." Artemis followed Minako as she entered the dark room and watched as she turned on the lamp by the bedstead. He wrinkled his nose at the smell of the room, wondering why it reeked so strongly of feces.

"Papa! Not again!" Minako groaned as the rolled the lifeless man on his side to take in the mess he had made on the bed. She sighed as she took in the mess underneath him. "I guess I have no choice but to see about getting a nurse here, though there isn't anything wrong with you healthwise." Minako sat her father up and put his arm around her shoulder as she nearly dragged him into the bathroom. Artemis watched in bewilderment as she began running the bath and undressing the lifeless man.

"Artemis, can you watch him so he doesn't drown?" She kind shook her head has the cat mewed in ascension and then watched as Minako manhandled her father into the bathtub. She turned the water off and then watched as Artemis jumped up to the side of the tub to watch her father.

"Strange how you seem to understand me, I was being facetious, but it would make things easier if you do understand me." Artemis meowed again, wondering if he should let Minako know yet that he wasn't an ordinary cat, but he decided against it. He still wanted to find out more about the girl, and just because he knew she was the reincarnation of Venus, didn't mean that the girl wasn't worth getting to know better. He watched as Minako nodded and then walked back into the bedroom. He heard her struggling in the other room with the linen on the bed.

He realized that Venus-sama was correct about Minako being a strong girl, but her personality seemed so opposite of the guardian he remembered from the Silver Millenium. He remembered the guardian only being so serious about only one thing, the Princess. Everything else she took rather light heartedly. In the past, she had definitely been what people would have thought the goddess of Venus would be, beautiful and fun. Always the life of the party, and wherever she went she seemed to light up every room. Men had seemed to fall all over themselves to try to impress her, and she always seemed to have some guy fawning over her. She had been exuberant about everything, except when it came to be a guardian and protecting the Princess. Then she became like this girl, focused and serious. But unlike Minako, until the war with Earth, she had never had the sadness in her eyes or the look of tiredness about her.

He nearly jumped when Minako walked back into the room. "I'm all done in there. Weren't napping were you, Arty?" She kneeled down and got the bath stuff from under the sink and then turned to start bathing her father.

"You know he used to not be like this. Even when we first got back to Japan, he wasn't this bad; I guess it just hadn't really sunk in yet. Do you know we lived in London, England for three years before coming back to this house here in Japan? My grade school used to be just a block from here, Papa's work was in downtown Tokyo, and Mama was a housewife. Papa got transferred to London in my 4th grade year of elementary; I had to go to English classes over there while I was in school. Mama was always really hard on me too; she was always nagging about my grades. But I kind of miss hearing it now, her incessant nagging." She sighed as she pulled the drain on the tub and then got the towel to wrap her father in. She stood him up as best as she could and wrapped the towel around him. Artemis watched all of this in growing respect for the girl. She was a stronger person than he realized, though Venus-sama had already said so. She half carried half dragged her father back to his now newly made bed and started to redress him in a fresh set of pajamas that she had laid out on the bed.

"There, Papa, now you're all clean. I'm going to change and then I'll make dinner and bring it right up." She smiled as she laid him back down in the bed and then covered him with the covers.

"Coming, Artemis?" She asked the cat as she was about to leave the room, Artemis caught up to her and then she closed the door as they left the room. She sighed heavily and bent down to pet the cat.

"Arigato for the help, Artemis, it would have taken twice as long if I would have run back and forth to check on him so much. You're a wonderful cat and a great help. So, I've got to repay you with an excellent dinner!" She smiled and then walked down the hall towards her own room to change. Artemis looked after wistfully for a moment and then followed after her. What had happened to make Minako so sad?

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Ama-chan: Well, I hope you all enjoy this next part of the Prelude. I know I said that you'd get to see Minako's past, but I decided to wait until the next prelude part. (This by the way will be called Minako's Past.) I tried to make Venus's character in the Silver Millenium much like it is in the manga and anime, so that Artemis can of course realize that though Minako is Venus reborn, she is not exactly the same person she was. You can expect the other senshi to be different as well. I've been pondering doing this story for a while, and I wanted to make Minako a dependable person, and build up why she is worthy to be the leader of the senshi after Usagi. I hope you are enjoying it so far. By the way Venus is still a separate personality in Minako that Minako has no idea about. They actually can't be officially joined until Minako accepts her heritage as a sailor senshi. Also she does have dreams of her past life, the other senshi will as well. (This is part of their awakening.)

Illyana: Once again, don't you think you're giving them too much?

Ama-chan: I just don't want them to get lost and I do want them to be ready for the next chapter…..

Illyana: Though Minako-chan's father's state is making me tearful, and I really can't wait to know why he's like that.

Ama-chan: You'll just have to read it in the next part of the prelude.

Illyana: Ah, man, I thought you'd at least let your friend in on it.

Ama-chan & Illyana: Well, until next time folks, enjoy and don't forget the reviews!

Next chapter: Minako's Past