Another year. Another nightmare. The details and the people might change, but the heartbreak remains the same. The only upside is that by now Makoto has grown used to living through this annual horror by now. But that won't make experiencing it any easier… Post-Stars Arc. Mixed Manga/Anime canon. Written for Makoto birthday 2022.

Rated: T - Friendship/Hurt/Comfort - Words: 2,007 - Makoto K./Lita/Sailor Jupiter, Usagi T./Serena/Bunny/Sailor Moon, Shinozaki/Ken, Inner Senshi/Inner Scouts

A/N: This story is a sequel to my earlier story 'A waste of a wish. Makoto Birthday 2021'.

All the thanks to Jubbles for beta reading this fic for me.

You can find her at on Ao3 as: /users/Jubbles

Or check out her FFN account: u/1401129/JBubbles

And she is also on tumblr under the name jubblesbubbles

This story is a gift for my friends Euri, disaster_bi_jupiter and Jubbles

It was always the same every year.

Makoto would spend twelve whole months forgetting about the dream and then, on the night of December 4th, it'd rear its ugly head again.

Some details about it changed from one year to another. She didn't always awaken in her bedroom. Sometimes everybody would be in the living room rather than the kitchen. And who exactly would show up was never exactly the same.

Other details though were unerringly consistent. For instance, her parents were always there. Makoto was in no doubt about why that was the case. By contrast, she'd never understood why there was always one or two people conspicuously absent.

Over the years, Makoto had grown used to the dream. It was still awful, but at least occasionally she could tell it wasn't real. Nevertheless, she could never wake herself up. At least not before it ever got really bad.

Some part of her knew this year was one of those times.

She drifted up from her bed towards the door. Stepping through it, she was suddenly back in her parents' kitchen and somehow fully dressed. The place was utterly packed. Minako was shamelessly flirting with Shinozaki. Rei was begging Tomoko for an autograph. Mamoru was admiring Nichogi senpai's bouquet of roses. Asanuma was helping Makoto's mother dish up the food. And Ami was chatting away with Makoto's father. Abruptly they all fell silent and stared at her.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" They all cheered.

"Thanks, everyone," Makoto mumbled, pulling up a chair as the thunder began to rumble in the distance.

"What's the matter?" Inquired Rei.

"Oh… nothing," sighed Makoto. The first of the tremors began, prompting her to snatch a glass that would've otherwise fallen off the table.

"I know what it is!" Exclaimed Minako. "Asanuma, Nochogi and Ami are all here together, right? Well, I'm sorry I couldn't grab anyone else but this kitchen is pretty small. If we got all your lovers here there'd be no room at all!"

"It's not that, Mina. I'm actually glad you didn't bring anyone else…Well, maybe Crane Game Joe..." she muttered. At her words a sharp breeze blew through the kitchen causing some petals to break away from Nichogi's roses.

"Oh, you don't mean that." Ami brushed aside the rose petals before putting a humongous plate of pancakes in front of Makoto. "He might not have been very nice, but you'd never really wish harm on anyone."

"You know me too well, Ami…And of course you'd work it all out."

"What can I say," she shrugged, "Even in your dreams I'm still the smartest person in the room."

Her father laughed. "Just not the most humble eh?" He gave Ami a friendly slap on the back.

"You would know, Papa," sighed Makoto, "You know the real Ami so well, right?"

"Don't be silly, dear. Me and your father never met Ami. In fact, we never met any of your friends here now did we"

Makoto put her elbows on the table and cupped her chin in her hands. "I know, Mama. I know. But I think you'd have liked them if you had."

She felt the familiar sensation of somersaults in her stomach. It was accompanied by another, far stronger breeze, a more aggressive tremor and far closer thunder.

"This year, would it be alright if we just got this over with?" Makoto asked lethargically. "I already know this isn't real after all."

"Whatever you want, Mako," nodded her father.

"It is your special day dear!" Added her mother.

As always the quaking intensified. Makoto yawned and then blinked out of boredom. When she opened her eyes she was there once again.

The plane. The horrible noise of the engines straining. The awful turbulence. The painful tightness of the seat belt. And to either side of her were her parents and all her friends, each of them noticeably larger than they had been before.

Out of habit (Makoto wondered if you could form a habit within a dream) she tried to free herself. No good. The safety belt was too strong for her. Maybe if she hadn't suddenly become seven-years-old she might've had a chance. But it just wasn't to be. Vaguely, she noted how Ami and the others hadn't changed at all. They were all as old as they'd been in the apartment a moment ago. That struck her as particularly unfair. She wondered if they had the power to do anything, to transform and save everyone. But of course, even if they could, they wouldn't.

That would 'break the rules'. And the rules were that she had to live through this again. Every year. Without fail. No matter what. Maybe this time she might at least speed things up a bit.

Despite the anxiety gripping her she went through all the usual motions. The screaming. The crying. The begging. Finally, she peered down the rows of seats towards the window.

Sure enough there was the wing of the plane amidst the ominous black clouds. Makoto could've sworn she saw the lightning starting to build up, readying itself to strike the engine. She brought her eyes back to centre and braced herself, concentrating hard on the dull grey tray table in front of her.

"Come on," she muttered. "Hurry up already." She felt the tears welling in her eyes. "Please. Just get it over and done with." The tears broke free. "Do it! Just do it!"

That was when she saw the light. Relief flooded her. The lightning had finally come. She'd awaken soon. In a mere moment she'd be feeling awful, but at least…

Her relief gave way to confusion. Because the light was coming from the window on the other side of the plane. And it was not a jagged fork of lightning. Rather, it was a gentle beam of silver peeking out through the dark sky.

Makoto began to feel an odd pressure around her left hand. The pressure gently increased as the clouds parted further, letting in more and more of the soft silvery illumination. Makoto found herself mesmerised by the light. As a result, she failed to notice how the turbulence had begun to ease off. Nor did she sense the belt loosen or hear the rumbling noise quiet down. However, she did dimly register another noise in the distance.

No. Not a noise. A voice. A voice that was growing louder in tandem with the pressure on her hand. Peering down at her hand, Makoto was surprised to find it was no longer that of a child's. When she turned her attention back to the window she discovered the light had seeped in further and was still intensifying. It gradually engulfed more and more of the plane interior until Makoto couldn't see any of her friends on that side. Looking to her right, she saw that the light had somehow done the same on the other side of the plane too. She lay back into her seat and closed her eyes.

She couldn't be sure the light was coming for her. She couldn't be sure what the pressure on her hand was. She couldn't be sure who the voice belonged to. But, for the first time since having this recurring nightmare, she dared to hope.

The light engulfed her. The pressure tightened. The voice grew louder.

"Mako. Mako. Maaaaaaaaaaaakoooooo!"

Makoto's eyes fluttered open.

Blearily, she registered the wing of the plane and almost jolted in her seat. Then she felt another squeeze of pressure upon her hand. Hazily, she turned her attention away from the window and to the seat to her left. There sat a young woman with long blonde hair tied up in two buns atop her head.

"Usagi?" She whispered.

"Mako! You're awake!" Chirped Usagi. "That's great because they said we'd be landing real soon."

Makoto rubbed her eyes, trying to remove some of the drowsiness from them. "Wasn't Ami sitting next to me?"

"Yeah, but she was feeling a little air sick so she's taken an extended trip to the bathroom."

"Oh no, poor Ami" muttered Mako, still not fully awake yet. However, she recovered just enough of her faculties to realise something was off. "Wait, but weren't you sitting with Mamoru?" She vaguely indicated towards the other side of the plane. "Why're you down here?"

Usagi shrugged. "I remembered how anxious you were when we told you about this trip. I kind of figured you might have a fear of flying. I guess travelling like this on your eighteenth wasn't the best planning on our part," she said apologetically. "Anyway, I thought the least I could do was make sure you were okay. After all, you protect the rest of us often enough, right?"

"…I suppose so…" Makoto replied quietly. "Thanks…Thank you, Usagi… "

The remainder of the flight went perfectly smoothly. Despite this, Makoto kept a firm grip on Usagi's hand until the plane landed.

Later, stepping from the plane into the bright sunshine, Makoto was struck by how vividly she remembered the dream.

The memory of it still played in her mind as they settled into their rooms, tucked into the available buffet (including the delicious pancakes) and finally got around to the birthday cake.

Before blowing out the candles, Makoto was sorely tempted to wish that all of her annual dreams play out exactly like this last one.

She didn't though.

She didn't even wish to never have the dream ever again.

After all, why waste a wish on something you knew had already come true?

A/N: Well folks, that's it. That's the last of the birthday fics! As I'm sure you have been able to tell, all the Inner Senshi (and Mamoru's) birthday fics were intended to be mixed anime/manga canon and the central idea behind each of them was to present the characters' lives as rough before they meet Usagi and better after they meet her. Ironically, making them mixed manga/anime canon was my way of addressing that my anniversary fics for each character were going to JUST be anime canon…then plans changed and I wound up making manga canon fics for all of them anyway, lol.

Anyway, even though we are done with the birthday fics, it doesn't mean the anniversary anthology is over just yet.

In fact, not by a long shot. There is still something VERY special to come later this month to wrap up the anniversary year. So, stay tuned!

Also just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!