Welcome back!

It's been a long time since I first started this story. I stopped writing because in 2016 I lost my Dad suddenly and it shattered me and took away all inspiration for writing. I've come back to it now to finish my Harry Potter signature story, and I had a few of these And Throw Away the Key chapters outlined so I thought I would buff them up and post. To be honest, I'm not certain I'll continue on with retelling as I'm not sure the state of Sailor Moon fandom now and no idea if anyone is even reading this story anymore! So please drop me a note, if you are out there and want more!

Please remember to leave a review! It reminds me that you guys are still out there and interested for this tale I am writing for you!

I'll remind you that this story is a more adult, gritty retelling of my original ASMR famous tale, and as such quite a few things will be different from the original as well as from canon.

And Throw Away the Key

Chapter Three

Kings and Kingdoms

For a moment, still shrouded in the alleyway, Serena was rendered speechless. Jaedite made eye contact with her and she clasped her locket, her nails finding the separation between lid and bottom in order to wedge it open. "MOON CRY-"

Her transformation turned into a scream as the Dark King barrelled toward her, knocking her further back into the alley and sending her locket flying out of her grip. Serena reached desperately for it but Jaedite picked it up first with one hand, his other wrapping around her arm and wrenching her out of the area in a flash of light.

When the light cleared, Serena found herself in the expansive garden of her cousin's English cottage. Too hyped to think, she immediately hauled back and punched Jaedite in the face. He dropped her locket and she leapt upon it: "MOON CRYSTAL POWER!"

The familiar burst of magic swelled around her, pressing ribbons and light all around her delicate body. Her boots wrapped about her feet giving her solid footing as the lights vanished.

"You're dead, Jaedite!" Sailor Moon bellowed, her sceptre appearing in her hand as she swung its familiar weight about her head.

"WAIT! WAIT!" The now bleeding man hollered, hands in the air in a sign of surrender. "Give me a second! God, Princess!"

Unsure, she paused, eyeing him carefully.

He kept his hands firmly in the air, powering down to show his innocent intentions. A stern king no longer, he stood as a young man in front of her. Handsome and rakish, Jaedite's lips quirked into a smile despite the blood dripping from his nose. "You just saw me help your bloody sister and that's how you react? What's wrong with you?"

"My cousin," Sailor Moon frowned. "And in case you don't remember, the last time we met you tortured me and led Endymion straight to Beryl!"

The blonde looked abashed. "I … I do remember. I can't even begin to apologize, Serenity, but … I … think I need to explain a lot of things first."

A flash of light to their left gave rise to Sailor Sun stumbling forward, panicked. "Oh good, I thought she might have killed you!" The older woman regarded Sailor Moon. "Wow, you did a good job on your uniform! Did you have to make the skirt so short, though?"

Sailor Moon flushed, looking down at her uniform. "I didn't have a choice, what do you mean? Anyway that isn't the point of concern here! You're a sailor soldier too? You're working with this guy? Selene, you have a lot of explaining to do!"

Her cousin powered down, taking Sailor Moon by the shoulder. "Come inside and we'll talk. I'll explain everything."

Inside the plush red lounge, Sailor Moon, still unwilling to power down, sat awkwardly beside her former nemesis and cousin.

"Eight months ago I woke up with most of my memories intact," Selene began. "I was visited by Artemis, my guide, who had also been awoken and together we pieced things together. It was shortly after that that I was united with the Four Kings: Jaedite, Nephrite, Zoicite and Kunzite."

Sailor Moon's lip curled in distaste. "They all lived?"

Jaedite looked amused as he iced his nose. "Yes, yes, I already know you wish us dead, you can do without the sneer."

"Jaed," Selene warned the blonde before turning toward Sailor Moon. "Surely you know who they were, Serena? They weren't always dark."

"The Four Kings, yes. Endymion's guard who betrayed him." As she said this with malice, an odd tickling sensation took her nose, reminding her how she had subsequently been betrayed by her own guard and Endymion himself.

"We didn't betray him!" Jaedite's relaxed countenance dropped and he stood, a dark storm tearing through his eyes. "She remembers nothing, Selene! What is the point of this?"

Selene stood as well. "Jaedite, just –"

"She doesn't even know who YOU are! Cousin, she says! Cousin!"

At this, Selene turned and stared at Sailor Moon in shock. "Serena?"

On the couch, Sailor Moon's head had begun to ache terribly. "I … Isn't that who you are?"

Selene dropped onto the armchair she had been sitting on with great exhaustion. "Serena, I'm your sister."

Black began to ebb around Sailor Moon's vision. Suddenly, everything seemed all too much. Her sister's voice was far away as she tried very hard to stay concentrated.

"Princess Selenity of the Sun….you don't …. Remember …. Serena? …. Serena?"

And it all went black.

When she came to, it was to the sounds of her niece and nephew running around in the hallways. Looking at herself she saw that she was in her normal clothes. What had happened? Had it been a dream?

"It wasn't a dream if that's what you're thinking," A dry voice intoned and she sat up in shock. Jaedite sat on a comically girlish rocking chair, a white cat in his arms. "Don't attack, please."

Serena's eyes meanwhile had fallen on the white feline and the golden moon on its forehead. From inside her, a memory stirred and she rolled the name around her mouth. "Artemis."

The cat purred and leapt onto the bed, rubbing against her. "You remember my name!"

"Hardly," Jaedite drawled, rolling his eyes. "Selene mentioned it earlier. I'll go fetch her."

"No," Serena corrected. "I do… sort of remember it. I think. …I don't know."

The cat looked perplexed. "And Luna never thought to help you? Your memories never unlocked?"

There was an odd familiarity to the whole idea, but Serena was unable to grasp at it. "Luna … I don't know, Artemis, it all seems so muddled. I have memories of our past lives, a bit of Endymion and I … sometimes … but a lot of everything is a big blank. Were we supposed to know more? I suppose I just thought that that was normal."

"Do not stress yourself," he calmed, patting her arm with his paw. "We'll work on it. You are much too weak right now, however. That will come."

Selene and Jaedite entered the room, and the other woman rushed toward her. "Serena, I was so worried. Are you alright?"

The hug felt nice and Serena nodded, tears welling in her eyes for no real reason. "We were sisters? Real sisters?"

"Yes." Selene smiled, looking her straight in the face. "Even as cousins, you are my sister, Serena. But yes, yes we are."

"But how?" Serena asked, blinking up at the face so alike her own.

Artemis cleared his throat, "Perhaps I can explain. Do you know anything about the beginning?"

"Beginning?"

"Fortunately I was in charge of teaching you both history a long time ago, so I have my bases covered. At the beginning of the universe, God blessed the royal families of each planet with unique abilities and solid morality in order to uphold the honesty and integrity of Heaven. The Sun was the first Kingdom created and was meant to rule over all the other planets. It was a harmonious time: The people were good and gracious and the planets lived happily. That was the Golden Millenium."

Serena's eyes widened, "Golden Millenium?"

Artemis nodded, continuing on. "It was a blessed time, but did not last forever. As I'm sure you're quite aware of now, where there is good, there comes evil. One day the entity you know as Queen Metallia rose from the sun, destroying the kingdom with magic borne from her darkness. Those few who survived escaped to the Moon and broken and battered they attempted to rebuild.

The King bound Metallia to the Sun, but the power needed to do this split his own power, The Holy Stone, into three fragments. Fearing Metallia would one day attempt to pursue the power, he divided the fragments on his deathbed.

The Sun Crystal went to his own son.

The Golden Crystal to his closest ally, the King of Earth.

And the Moon Crystal, to the purest soul he knew; his daughter."

Serena's eyes drifted to Selene's broach and the sparkling jewel that was encased within it.

Artemis continued his tale, "The Moon Kingdom was established through his daughter, while the Sun title was passed on through his son, in the hopes that one day the kingdom would be ready to be taken back. Thousands of years later the descendants of those two titles fell in love. They were your parents."

The story sent a rush of emotion through Serena. The Sun Kingdom. The Moon Kingdom. So many eras destroyed by darkness. There were thousands of questions in her mind. "So, the Sun heir would reside where, exactly?"

"He or she would travel through the planets, overseeing the entire solar system." Selene was the one to answer.

"I thought our Mother was the one in charge of the whole system –" Serena began. "That what's I thought I was-"

"Not exactly," Artemis corrected. "The triad of the Sun, Moon and Earth heirs were the allied leaders of the solar system."

Jaedite looked unimpressed. "Do you really not remember all of this, Serena?" He turned forcefully toward the feline in the room, "Why would this happen, Artemis?"

The white cat's tail unfurled itself as he thought. "I don't know, Jaedite. Luna should have been able to unlock the memories as easily as I did – perhaps other factors were at work that prevented it."

Selene folded her arms. "The thing is, Serena, I thought you came here because you remembered and you were just trying to broach the subject. If it wasn't that, then why did you come?"

A flood of heat rushed through her body as Serena felt all eyes on her. "I … I came for a visit."

Her sister's face was unmoved. "No, you altered our family's memories to make it seem as if you were supposed to move here. I played along because I thought you were waiting for the right time to tell me."

"Serena?" Artemis prodded.

The horror and loneliness of the past few months weighed heavily on her shoulders and tears flooded her eyes. "Please…I can't…" How could she tell them? If they knew they wouldn't look at her the same again. Despised by her soldiers... abused by her prince ... no knowledge of her past … they would find her lacking ... think her weak.

"I'm here." Selene sat on her bed, taking the younger girl's hands in her own. "Tell me, Serena. Tell me."

And, in tears, she did.

The Silver Millenium

Two months after the Earth Ball, the Moon was host to a variety of Earthern nobility, including the Prince and his guard; the four kings. It had been a whirlwind fortnight of events and tours and Princess Selenity had barely the chance to enjoy some quality time with her younger sister.

Her head had begun aching from the weight of her hair, piled on top her head around the glittering, spiky crown of the Sun Kingdom. Fighting with it for a few moments she finally was able to extract the damned thing from her locks. Giving a sigh of relief as her hair fell back down her back and took the pressure off her scalp, she clasped the crown in one hand and continued her search through the corridors of the Moon Palace.

She hadn't been able to find the Moon Princess anywhere. It was late and the girl hadn't been in her own chambers, so Selenity had made her way to the East Wing on the odd chance that Serenity happened to be in her receiving room.

Opening the ornate door, Selenity gave a gasp, her headache returning with vengeance.

There, on a pink cushioned love seat lay her little sister with the Prince of Earth atop her, one hand entangled in her hair while the other braced her ribcage as he kissed her with passion.

"What is happening here?!" Selenity exclaimed angrily, thanking God that they were both fully clothed.

Endymion tumbled off the princess, his handsome face in a shocked expression. "Princess! I …"

Serenity, lips swollen from the Earth prince's administrations, sat up. She hurriedly tried to pat down her disheveled hair. "Selenity! We…we were only kissing-"

"I'm not speaking to you. You!" She directed toward the Prince. "Outside. I want to talk to you now!"

Endymion spared a panicked glance at Serenity before hurriedly following the elder princess. In the hallway, Selenity rounded on the man. "What do you think you're doing?!" She hissed. "Wanting to dishonor my sister? You Earth folk-"

"No!" Endymion's deep blue eyes were wide. "No, no! I would never! We were just kissing, I swear to you!"

She grabbed him by the front of his high necked suit, rumpling the dark fabric without a care. "She is the most innocent, loving person in this family and if you –"

"Selenity," Endymion dropped her formal title, looking down at her with some amusement. "I want to marry her. I will wait for her! Your parents know, they plan to announce it in the morning. I'd never hurt her, I promise you!"

"Endymion-"

"I swear to you." The prince smiled, his dark hair falling into his eyes. "I love her."

"You will never hurt her?" Selenity repeated.

"Never."

"Fine." The princess let go of the man. "And remember to lock the door next time."

Speechless, Endymion watched her walk away with a laugh.

Once Serena had finished her story, instead of thinking her weak, Selene's face had gotten remarkably hard and her moon insignia blazed bright on her forehead. Her shouts had brought her husband, David into the room. Dave was an extremely tall, kind man, and Serena had been surprised to learn that he already knew of their whole history.

She had been even more surprised to find his official title had once been Prince David of Jupiter, crown prince to the planet and elder brother to Lita. David had seemed relieved to hear that Lita hadn't been apart of the terrible night that had broken his sister-in-law and despite his own anger, had managed to calm down the raging Sun Princess.

Once things were settled, Selene had insisted on Serena eating something.

Downstairs, she found the other three Kings waiting apprehensively.

"I won't you attack, I promise," Serena said dully. Although she knew rationally that they were on her side, she still had to fight an initial reaction of revulsion and anger. She and her friends had suffered at their hands once, not that long ago, and it was difficult to forget.

Kunzite, the tallest, was much less foreboding than he had been under Beryl's spell, for his long silver hair had been cut short, giving him an oddly modern look. "Ah, Princess, we're not worried. Jaedite has an extremely punchable face, we all know it."

Despite herself, she giggled.

Over dinner, Serena was regaled with tales of their adventures. Slowly the anxiety left, for here, seeing them so animated and humorous, it became quickly obvious that they were not the same people they had been.

"Once I became Sailor Sun, attacks began to happen here. That was how the Kings came upon me. Nephrite saved me from a particularly grotesque water creature."

"We were spread out all over after you destroyed Beryl. It was all very disorienting -Kunzite apparently woke up in a ditch," Nephrite explained.

"A homeless man hacked my hair!" Kunzite exclaimed, disgruntled.

"Then we searched for one another. Our magic helped with that, but it was a bit of a journey. Zoi ended up here in the UK, and then we stumbled onto Selene, so we all stayed."

Serena took a sip of her water. "How did you manage to have lives here, then? With nothing to your name?"

Her sister laughed, "Magic of course – something similar to the memory work you did on the family."

"But that's so vast, I can't even comprehend the extent –"

The others all shared glances.

"I think," Artemis began, "that tomorrow we shall start your training."

"Training?"

"Clearly your full potential has been hidden from you, Serena. We can help you tap into that." Zoicite commented through a mouth full of food.

"With you around we might finally start to turn the tide-" Nephrite agreed.

"The tide?"

"The attacks." Jaedite's blue eyes were thoughtful. "They've been happening so often."

Serena nodded, "Like today, I suppose? Is it all over England or just in the city?"

Again, the others shared glances. Serena frowned.

"Serena, it's happening all around the world." Jaedite twirled his fork as Selene got up to clear the plates. "We've been exhausted travelling around. The only reason we avoided your city was because we were too scared of … well, getting punched in the face."

"He'll never let that go." Zoicite laughed.

"All over the world?"

"Everywhere."

A chill ran down her spine and goosebumps pricked at her skin. The Kings and her sister seemed so pleased at her arrival. The kitchen was so warm and inviting. The laughter and easy camaraderie between them all was so….enticing.

And yet, fear gripped her heart. Her own court had turned their backs on her - detested her abilities - what's to say that wouldn't be her eventual fate here as well?

"It's just-" Serena began in a small voice and all the others turned to look at her. "It's just, I doubt I'll be much help. I'm not as good as-"

Nephrite's eyes seemed to flash maroon. "Serena, you defeated the witch who kept the rest of us enslaved for a millennium. Trust us, you'll be good." He smiled.

"And besides, if your magic is subpar, just give them a right hook and you'll win it all for us!" Jaedite pointed toward his bruised face.

The table roared to laughter and her protests died on her lips, for as she looked around at the others she saw in their faces something she had never felt before.

They truly believed in her.

And suddenly, Serena felt as if she could do anything.

To be Continued:

Do you think Darien is redeemable?

Who exactly is Rini? Any thoughts?

Which King is your favourite so far?

Thanks so much reading! Please remember to leave a review if you enjoyed this story so far. I love to hear your thoughts or questions, and feedback is so very important in a quiet fandom like this. If you're enjoying the story, please let me know.