Disclaimer: Attention all people who can't think rationally, I don't own either Ranma or Sailor Moon. For those of you who were already intelligent enough to know that, isn't it sad that we have to announce this?
The inners, Herb, and Setsuna were sitting in Rei's house waiting for Ranma and Usagi to show up. It was about time for the weekly meeting and although the duo weren't late, they were normally here by now. Rei was looking out the door towards the shrine's steps trying to see if she could spot Ranma or Usagi. Just as they were scheduled to being the meeting Rei smiled and said, "I see them coming up the steps now." Everyone then turned to look towards the door and they watched as the duo walked into the room.
Usagi and Ranma quickly took off their shoes and then they sat down on the loveseat that had been left unoccupied for them. Once everyone in the room was sitting down Usagi smiled and said, "Sorry for being late everyone. Ranma and I were delayed because we wanted to make sure that something was working before we told you all about it." The Inners all nodded their heads to show that they forgave the duo while Setsuna and Herb felt that there was nothing to forgive. Setsuna felt this because she had a good hunch about what had held the duo up. On the other hand Herb felt that there was only a very short list of things that he could reprimand Ranma, and by extension Usagi, on and this wasn't on the list.
Seeing that she had everyone's attention Usagi continued on, "For the past few weeks Ranma and I have been exploring the capital of the Silver Millennium." Usagi had to stop talking for a moment because of the various outbursts of surprise from the other Inners. Once the Inners had calmed down a bit Usagi was able to resume speaking. "Ranma and I haven't mentioned this before because it was safer at first if just the two of us explored the ruins. We can transport from the Earth to the Moon by ourselves and could have carried the other if one of us ended up injured. You four on the other hand need all of you in order to perform the Sailor Teleport. If one of you had been injured, Ranma and I would have had to transport all of you back to the Earth."
Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako then looked down at the floor with disappointment on their faces. None of them, although with Rei one would have trouble getting her to confess, ever wanted to be a burden to Usagi. They were her friends and her guards; the mere thought that their presence could have potentially caused problems for Usagi was a very painful blow to them. The Inners' reaction wasn't just because of their past lives because Usagi had managed to earn a special place in each of their hearts by her own actions.
Usagi didn't want her friends to be sad and quickly said, "Cheer up girls. The reason why Ranma and I were late is because we were installing a transport pad in his home. With that pad, and any others that we install, you can all go back and forth from here to Argentaniople." She then sat back and watched as the proverbial light bulb turned on for her four friends as they remembered or realized that Argentaniople was the name of the capital city of the Silver Millennium.
Ranma then took over the conversation when all of the scouts had made the connection. "Argentaniople and our new ease in getting to it open up an important option that we all need to talk about. The royal palace in Argentaniople and the immediate grounds around the palace are capable of supporting human life. We can use the transport pads to get our families out of harms way if things go south in the upcoming fight against our unknown adversary. Now we have a way to insure that our families and loved ones are safe, but to do that we need to tell them about what we are."
After Ranma stopped talking the room was so silent that one could have heard the sound of a pin dropping. Inside each of the Inners a fierce mental war was being waged. On the one hand they now had a chance to insure that their families would be safe from harm. Although it had never been brought up all of the Inners had suffered reoccurring nightmares of their families dying because of a monster attack. However, none of them wanted to tell their families because they didn't want their families to worry about them. Also, they were afraid that their parents would try and stop them from fulfilling their duties as Sailor Scouts in some mistaken attempt to protect them.
Slowly Ami, Minako, Rei, and Makoto made up their minds and looked at each other. The other three girls focused their gaze on Minako who politely nodded her head. Minako then turned to face Usagi and she said, "When do we tell our families?"
Kenji and Ikuko were sitting at the kitchen table having some coffee and just enjoying the quiet moment. Shingo was over at the Saotomes because he was helping Hotaru set up a new game system that Nodoka had gotten. Usagi was upstairs in her room and both the elder Tsukinos figured that Usagi was working on some homework assignment. They deeply loved each other, had a wonderful home and they had two wonderful children. What more could they honestly wish for?
Ikuko then got up and headed over to the coffee pot so that she could refill her and Kenji's coffee cups. Just as Ikuko had grabbed the half-filled coffee pot she noticed Usagi coming down the stairs. With a pleasant smile Ikuko called out, "Hello Usagi. How's your studying coming?"
Usagi walked over to the table and sat down. In her usual cheerful manner she said, "Oh my studying for school is coming along fine Mom. In fact I've finished all of my assignments an hour ago." Immediately after Usagi said this she got polite congratulations from both of her parents. Once the congratulations were over Usagi said, "Mom, Dad, can you come upstairs? I've got something in my room that I want to show you."
The elder Tsukinos quickly looked at each other and nodded their heads. Both of them then turned to look at Usagi and Ikuko said, "Sure then dear. Your father and I will be right up there in just a moment." Usagi gently bit the bottom of her lip for a moment as if she was considering something. She then nodded her head and headed upstairs. Ikuko turned to Kenji and said, "Lets go see what our little rabbit is up to. It's obvious that she's nervous about how we'll take what she wants to show up. However, judging from her body language I don't think it's anything that will cause us to be disappointed in her."
As a concerned father worrying about his only daughter Kenji could come up with a 1001 different things that could have happened to make Usagi nervous about showing something to her parents. Naturally Kenji didn't voice these concerns because he didn't want to upset Ikuko and because 99 of those ideas seemed impossible to him. The two of them then got and headed towards Usagi's room. When they got to Usagi's door Kenji knocked on it and he said, "We're here Usagi. What did you want to show us?"
Usagi then opened the door and cheerfully said, "Come in Mom and Dad, come in." Once Usagi had gotten out of the doorway her parents quickly walked inside and noticed something strange on the floor. It looked like a large square of carpeting had been taken out of Usagi's bedroom floor and had been replaced with another set of carpeting. Only this new carpeting was covered in a giant silver Flower of Life geometric pattern. Kenji and Ikuko were about to comment on the sudden redecoration of the floor when Usagi said, "I know you two have questions. They will be answered shortly, but in order to answer those questions I need you two to step inside the Fower of Life on the floor."
Both of Usagi's parents were deeply worried about what was going on. In the back of their minds they were both wondering how on earth Usagi could have done this renovation so quickly without causing any noise. That fact wasn't helping them deal with the situation at hand. Luckily, both Kenji and Ikuko had better then average tolerance for the bizarre and they were willing to go along with Usagi for now. However, Usagi had better have a VERY good reason for why all of this was happening.
Once the elder Tuskinos were standing inside the Flower of Life Usagi joined them inside the circle. Standing in front of her parents Usagi pulled out a small black oval that looked like it was made out of some time of a mineral. Usagi then brought the oval near her mouth and firmly said, "Jihel'masume, Argentaniople Val'heilma sepritor Selene."
Before either Ikuko or Kenji could as Usagi what she was muttering they noticed a faint glow coming from the ground. The glow was coming from the silver lines that made up the Flower of Life that they were standing on. Both parents were frozen by surprise as they watched the glow from the floor get brighter and brighter. Suddenly the glow turned into a brilliant flash that caused Kenji and Ikuko to close their eyes.
When they opened their eyes both parents noticed that they weren't in Usagi's room anymore. Currently the three Tuskinos were standing on a raised platform next to the wall of a large room. The entire room seemed to be made out of marble and to the Tsukinos' left and right were large marble columns. A rapidly dimming glow coming from the floor alerted the elder Tsukinos to the fact that they were standing in another Flower of Life.
Once the shock of their sudden transportation wore off a bit both of Usagi's parents turned to look at their little girl. Kenji spoke in a very calm manner, actually he wasn't calm at all it was just that he didn't want to frighten Usagi, and said, "Where are we Usagi? Your mother and I aren't going anywhere until we get some answers young lady."
Usagi turned to look at her parents and she nodded her head. In a very quiet manner Usagi said, "I was going to tell you two in just a moment why we're here. Currently we're in the main transport room of the royal palace of the Silver Millennium in the city of Argentaniople." Seeing the slight disbelief and surprise in her parents eyes Usagi sighed and said, "My boyfriend is cursed to turn into a girl with a body that most of my classmates would kill to have. We live in a city that is regularly attacked by various sorts of monsters; so regularly in fact that most people don't even freak out anymore when an attack happens. Is it really that big of a stretch that I would have a magical transporter pad in my bedroom?"
Kenji and Ikuko looked at each other while they considered Usagi's words. When put in that context, a magical transporter pad really wasn't that hard to accept. True it begged the question of HOW Usagi had gotten the magical transporter, but it was still something they could accept. Now the only question on their minds was what was Usagi bringing them into and how far down did this crazy rabbit-hole go?
Ranma was standing in the royal audience chamber of the palace with his back to the throne watching the small gathering in the room as he waited for Usagi to show up with her parents. Quickly scanning the small group Ranma spotted Shingo standing off to the side talking with Hotaru. Out of those currently in the room who had not been aware of the Sailor Scouts identity Shingo was doing the best with coping with the situation. Rei's grandfather, her father wasn't at the palace, was coming in second place in dealing with being transported to the Moon.
Minako's parents were causing quite the commotion demanding to know what was going on and why they were here. Ami's mother on the other hand seemed to be in some kind of shock as if she thought that all of this just couldn't be real. Ranma was starting to wonder just where Ami and Minako's parents had been these past few months. Honestly, this only a 3 on his weirdness meter which when converted to the average resident of Juban's weirdness meter only came out to a 6.4. Now if there were a dozen or so mooncats doing a rendition of river dance in the audience hall right now then the parents freaking out would be understandable to Ranma.
Just when Ranma was about to go looking for some Advil one of the side doors opened up. All thirteen people in the audience chamber then turned to watch as Usagi and her parents walked into the room. Usagi calmly walked through the small crowd which her parents melted into and she headed towards the empty throne. Everyone watched as Usagi sat down on the throne and her plain working crown appeared on her head. Those with past lives, or information on the Silver Millennium in Nodoka and Herb's cases, knew that the crown had appeared as result of Usagi's magic interacting with the magic in the throne. Shingo and the other new people just wondered why the crown had appeared and figured it had something to do with the situation they were now in.
Looking out on the group in front of her Usagi smiled and softly said, "Welcome everyone. No doubt most of you are wondering what is going on and where exactly you currently are." Usagi then laid her left hand on the armrest of her throne and concentrated. A small silver glow lightly covered her hand and then the stone roof above everyone started to retract. One of the previous queens of the Silver Millennium, Usagi couldn't remember which one at the moment, had always preferred the open air. So during her reign that queen had renovated the roof of the audience chamber so that the stone roof could be retracted so that only a clear crystal secondary roof remained.
Everyone, including Usagi, looked up at the now visible sky and saw the Earth majestically hanging in the sky. Quickly returning her gaze to the assembled group, Usagi noticed that all of the parents except for Nodoka looked like they were about to have a heart attack. Usagi let out a series of polite coughs to focus everyone's attention back on her. Once everyone was looking at her again she continued, "This is not a trick and you are not dreaming. We really are in a palace that is on the Moon. Right now you are probably thinking in your minds that this place cannot exist since scientists would have obviously discovered it by now. For those of you who are thinking this just remember these words: 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'"
"About 10,000 years ago by Earth's calendar a grand magical kingdom was destroyed. Just before she died the last Queen of this kingdom, Queen Serenity IV, cast a spell that would guide the souls of her court as they were reincarnated so that they could more easily regain their former abilities. She did this for many reasons that will not be discussed at this time due to the reasons complex natures. You and everyone else in Juuban already know a bit about some of these reincarnated souls because they are the Sailor Scouts. However, you are all here because you all have a close connection to the Sailor Scouts."
"Princess Mnemosyne of Mercury was reborn as Ami Mizuno and is known as Sailor Mercury. Minako Aino, who is Sailor Venus, is the reincarnation of Princess Astarte of Venus. In her past life Sailor Mars, who in this life goes by Rei Hino, was known as Princess Larentia of Mars. Princess Hippolyta of Jupiter known to everyone as Sailor Jupiter was reborn as Makoto Kino. Princess Hippolyta's son Prince Nephelite of Jupiter and Lord of the Four Moons was reborn as my boyfriend Ranma Saotome and is well known as the Jovian Paladin. For those of you who haven't met me, my name is Usagi Tsukino. You've probably have heard of my alter ego Sailor Moon and in my last life I was Princess Serenity, heir to the Silver Millennium ruled by Queen Serenity IV who in that lifetime was my mother."
"As you might have guessed, most of us have been aware of our past lives for almost two years now. However, it has only been since Ranma joined up with us that I along with the rest of my comrades and friends have been able to have more then a few vague recollections of our past lives. Thanks to this increased awareness about our past lives we were able to locate this palace and collect the transport pads that we used to bring everyone here. We are telling and showing you all of this because we finally have a place that we'll know that you'll be safe at in any future attacks. None of us wanted to keep this hidden from you, but we didn't want to tell you all this until we knew that you could be safe."
Usagi had purposefully neglected to mention that Hotaru was Sailor Saturn and thus the reincarnation of Princess Parvati of Saturn. Currently only she, Nodoka, Ranma, Setsuna, Makoto, and Hotaru herself were aware of exactly who Hotaru truly was. The secrecy surrounding Sailor Saturn was deliberately set up by Usagi so that Hotaru would remain anonymous. Sailor Saturn, due to her WMD magical abilities, was a very important person who needed to be protected and nothing worked better at the moment then anonymity.
About twenty minutes after Usagi's speech all of the parents and one grandparent were sitting down in a small conference room that they had been led to. This was so that the parents could deal with the shock of everything while near people who had gone through everything that they had gone through. Everyone was sitting at the circular conference table with a cup of hot tea next to them. For a few moments the conference room was silent, but then Mr. Aino broke the silence. In a slightly shell shocked manner he said, "How could something like this happen? What's going on with my little girl? How can we deal with this?"
Nodoka took a sip of her tea and then calmly answered, "That was a rather silly question Mr. Aino." Immediately the Ainos and Mrs. Mizuno glared at Nodoka while the Tsukinos gave their old friend wary glances. After placing her tea cup down on the table Nodoka calmly said, "Must I remind you all about the wheel of reincarnation? It is after all a concept of Buddhism that I am sure you all must know a little bit about. Our children may remember one of their past lives while we do not, but that doesn't mean that they are to be treated differently. They are still our children except that they are hopefully a little wiser then the average teenager."
Shigeru Hino nodded his head and said, "Mrs. Saotome is correct. Our children have been, are, and always will be our children. They just are special in a unique way that we will have to learn to accept. If other parents can easily accept a blind, mute, or a deformed child how can we not accept that our children have this unique condition." The elder Hino's sage words caused everyone else in the room to nod their heads. Carefully fingering his tea cup Shigeru said, "There is one thing however that puzzles me. Why were you so calm Mrs. Saotome? Even given your son's 'unique' situation outside of this business I would have expected you to have some shock at what has happened."
The Ainos and Mrs. Mizuno were confused about what the elder Hino was implying, but Nodoka and the Tsukinos understood what he was saying. Nodoka shrugged her shoulders and replied, "That's because I was already aware of what Usagi just told us." Immediately after Nodoka said that she raised her hand to signal for silence. Then she closed her eyes and explained why she already knew what was going on. "When he first started to aid the Sailor Scouts Ranma was acting independently. It was during this time period where he was working by himself that Ranma revealed that he is the Jovian Paladin to me."
"Once Ranma joined up with the Sailor Scouts I quickly learned most of the other Scouts' identity. If you know who one Sailor Scout is it is very easy to learn who the rest of them are. It is because of this fact that the 'Inners', as our children are sometimes referred to, can be so easily identified as long as just one of them is known that none of them told you earlier. If one Scout revealed herself, the rest of the Scouts and Ranma would have been forcibly revealed as well."
Nodoka then turned to face the Tsukinos and she said, "I really wanted to tell you about Usagi. However, it wasn't my secret to tell. Since I was the only parent who knew about the Scouts, I got to know a good deal about each of them. They may be superheroes, but our children are still children who need the comfort of a parent or a close confidant. As long as we continue to trust our children, understand that they have an unusual life, and provide a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to their troubles everything will be alright."
Mrs. Mizuno had been sitting in her seat carefully considering what she had been told and what she had observed so far. Everything that Mrs. Mizuno had seen or heard today made sense to her except for one thing. While it was probably something minor compared to what had been revealed to them, Mrs. Mizuno couldn't get it out of her mind. She needed to know what was going on so that she could fully understand the situation at hand. In a very polite manner Mrs. Mizuno said, "Who was that man standing off to the side in armor and why is he here?"
Suddenly a voice replied out of no where that caused all of the parents to jump in surprise. "That young man's name is Prince Herb of the Musk Dynasty." Everyone then turned to the source of the voice and saw Setsuna leaning against the wall in her Sailor Pluto outfit. Setsuna started walking towards the conference table while she continued to explain. "Herb is here because he and his people are the descendents of one of General Nephrite's, Prince Nephelite's father, legionary companies. The Musk people bound to Ranma Saotome as his warriors and subjects due to their ancestors' oaths of loyalty to General Nephrite."
Mrs. Aino then spoke up, "You mean to tell me that because of an oath given by an ancestor over 10,000 years ago that boy Herb is Ranma's subject? That's absurd! No sane person would honor a promise made 10,000 years ago even if that person somehow managed to live that long. How can these Musk people be treated seriously if they do such a thing and to someone who's the reincarnation not the actual person to whom the promise was made to?"
A tic started to develop over Setsuna's eyebrow as she listened to Minako's mother go on and on. Finally Setsuna had enough and she coldly said, "I would suggest child that you think before you speak. The Musk people take their honor very seriously. It does not to them that the vow of loyalty was given over 10,000 years ago to General Nephrite. The vow was inherited by Prince Nephelite who is Ranma Saotome. And as for your assumption that no sane person would honor a promise made over 10,000 years ago well," Setsuna then stood up before continuing on. "I AM over 10,000 Earth years old and sanity has never once in my life been called into question. My Name is Princess Setsuna of Pluto also known to those aware of my existence as Sailor Pluto and the sole survivor of the Silver Millennium. As the heir to the Silver Throne, Usagi has my loyalty and my allegiance."
Usagi, along with her parents and Shingo, was walking silently towards her quarters in the palace. Currently the Tuskinos were alone because each family was having some private time to themselves so that both parent and child could come to terms with the new dynamic in their relationships. When the four of them arrived at the door to Usagi's quarters Usagi turned around and said, "These are the royal quarters of the lunar palace. Since I am the princess regent of the Silver Millennium, even though that kingdom technically doesn't exist for now, these are now my quarters in the palace. This will offer us a nice quiet place to talk. Please be patent if I seem distant at times while we talk. I occasionally have flashes when I'm in here about my lifetime as Princess Serenity."
Kenji and Ikuko looked at each other and nodded their heads. After Setsuna had chewed Mrs. Aino out at the conference Nodoka had given everyone an in depth crash course in how to help your child deal with sudden memories from a past life. One of the biggest things that Nodoka had stressed was the fact that memories involving a person's relationships with other people in their past life can be especially distressing when confronted with the present life's equivalent relationships. Considering the fact that Nodoka lived with the person who was her son's mother in another lifetime, everyone was willing to accept her word at face value.
The Tsukinos walked into Usagi's home away from home and sat down in the small sitting area of the quarters. Shingo let out a small whistle as he looked around the room and said, "Great place sis. I knew you would eventually go somewhere with your life once you got your act together. However, I never expected you to get this far in your life." Shingo's honest praise caused Usagi to blush slightly since she had never expected it.
Ikuko looked around and then said, "Your brother is right Usagi you have come very far." After she said this Ikuko's eye caught sight a painting that was hanging on a wall. She had spotted the painting because it stood out from the mural on the wall behind it. The painting showed a woman with lavender hair wearing regal clothing standing next to a similarly dress near-middle aged man. Between the two adults was a little girl who was wearing a small version of the dress that the woman in the painting wore. When she looked at the face of the little girl in the painting Ikuko felt like she was looking at a ghost. It was Usagi there in the painting staring back at her.
Very quickly Ikuko closed her eyes and reminded herself that the room she was in had belonged to Princess Serenity's mother. It was perfectly reasonable to expect that the queen would have had some sort of family photo or in this case a family portrait done. Even though Ikuko intellectually knew that she should have expected to see such an image, she had been unprepared for Usagi and Princess Serenity to look so much like."
Usagi noticed her mother's gaze and the subsequent confusion that followed. Since Usagi knew the exact layout of her quarters, it wasn't that hard to figure out what had caused this reaction. In soft voice Usagi said, "So you noticed that painting over there. I must admit that I was surprised as well when I saw it. Everyone else looks slightly different then they did in their past life although they still look pretty much the same. I hope it doesn't cause you any trouble Mom and Dad."
Kenji shook his head and said, "The fact that you look just like you did in your last lifetime doesn't bother us Usagi. I will admit that it is a little strange, but it's not nearly as strange as when I first saw Ranma's curse activate." Shingo gave a little snort of agreement at that, but he didn't say anything. Then with an uncertain tone Kenji said, "Usagi, what was your personal life like back in the Silver Millennium? How were things when you weren't in the public's eye?"
It was obvious to Usagi that her father wanted to know about Queen Serenity and King Priam, but was too afraid to say it. Not that Usagi blamed him because she knew that she would have been curious if she was in her father's position. With a gentle smile Usagi said, "Back in the Silver Millennium, Mother and Father were very busy all the time. It just came with the job of ruling a kingdom. However, they both tried to spend mealtimes and at least one hour a day with me. Once, or occasionally twice if things were running smoothly, a month Mother and Father would schedule an entire day where we could just be a family without the hassles that came with being the high royal family. I really think that you would have gotten along great with Mother and Father if you could have met them Mom and Dad."
Both Ikuko and Kenji felt a twinge of jealousy when they first heard Usagi refer to Queen Serenity and King Priam as mother and father. However, that jealousy was quickly destroyed since it was obvious that Usagi loved both them and her past life's parents equally. They would just have to learn to share their daughter's parental affections with the ghosts of her past. Not that this was really surprising to the elder Tsukinos or all that difficult given how big Usagi's heart was. Besides, compared to what Nodoka had to deal with they got off easy.
Author's Note: on the Silver Millennium names of the scouts: Mnemosyne is the mother of the muses. Astarte is the name of a Semitic goddess of sex and fertility. Larentia is the name of a minor goddess who helped Romulus found Rome in several myths. Hippolyta is the name frequently used as the name of the Amazonian queen in Greek mythology. Parvati is the name of the Hindu god Shiva's wife.