Reunion
By Bashfulglowfly
Chapter 6
Minako came back to herself. She shuddered helplessly in the arms that held her close. A part of her recognized his strength, the smell of his skin, and the caress of his hands. Blindly she felt around until she found his shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face against the chest she remembered pressing loving kisses against. She felt him kiss the top of her head as his arms tightened, holding her against him.
Minako could hear crying coming from her sisters. She wanted to comfort them but she was going to be selfish for once and let herself be comforted. The chest beneath her rumbled. "You were pretty brutal to them, Princess."
A tear-clogged voice replied. "What happened to you was brutal. What happened to our people was brutal. This is nothing!"
Ami spoke, her voice was raspy. "No, Serenity did the right thing. It was the only way that we would accept you. To know that you suffered horrors beyond imagining at the hands of that bitch!"
"Ami!" Makoto was clearly shocked at the normally gentle girl's language.
Minako could feel Ami become stubborn. "She was what she was! And I'm going to continue to think of her that way even if she can't be reborn!"
Minako looked up into the face of the man that she had dreamed about for so very long. Her blue eyes narrowed as she pulled back just slightly to look up and down at him. His hair was the same, silver and to the shoulders, his eyes were the color of a cloudy day. He was wearing a suit but she could tell that the body beneath was the same as the one she remembered from a thousand years ago. Her head tilted as she gazed at him consideringly. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
Minako scowled. "Well HELL! I don't suppose you're going to let me trip you and beat you to the floor, are you?"
The firm lips she remembered tracing their way across her breasts smiled. "Not for a couple years at least."
Makoto stared in horror at Nephrite, tears still glistening on her cheeks.. "How old are you?"
Nephrite sighed. "You're jailbait to me too. I'm twenty-one."
Zoicite grinned wickedly. Ami looked at him with a raised eyebrow and sniffed, turning her head.
Jadeite stared at him for a moment then at Rei then cursed. "Dammit! You mean to tell me Zoi's the only one who can get lucky in the next couple of years without being arrested?!"
Rei raised an elegant brow. "What makes you think that you are ever going to get lucky with me?"
Mamoru raised his hand. "Don't forget about me." Usagi blushed.
Zoicite shot him a glare that promised death and other painful things. "Don't even THINK about it."
Mamoru shrugged. "Sorry. Can't help it. Teenage boy hormones, you know."
Kunzite raised a silver eyebrow. "Oh? I can see to it that they won't bother you all that much."
Mamoru gave the leader of his Guardians a wary look. "I think I can keep them under control. Thank you for the offer to help."
Jadeite laughed. "By the way, after you slapped Dymion and Zoi stupid, they remembered something."
"What was that?"
Jadeite gleefully ignored the frantic signaling from Mamoru and Zoicite. "Remember when they were eight and they decided to play matador?"
The icy glare confirmed that Kunzite did indeed remember.
"You can share fond remembrances of the stupid things you've done later." Said Minako. "I want to try out that training arena. And I want to see Sailor Moon's skills."
Usagi bit her lip. "I'm not all that good."
Her brother stood up and hugged her close. "We've talked about this, remember?"
She sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm not meant to work alone. I'm supposed to be part of the team and I'm the one who ends the fight."
Jadeite ruffled her hair as he walked past her to the console. "Exactly. Don't you forget it either."
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The girls staggered out of the training room. They hadn't been this exhausted in ages. All of them sported some sort of injury. The men looked grim as they gathered up the girl that they loved and made them sit down. Zoicite darted into the men's locker room and grabbed the first aid kit. While smaller wounds were cleaned and bandaged, Endymion healed the larger injuries.
Venus looked at Kunzite. "We're out of shape aren't we? Out of shape and not able to protect our princess."
Kunzite nodded. "The out of shape can be taken care of quickly…it's the not being coordinated enough to work together is what is the biggest problem."
Nephrite turned from the computers. "Back in the day, the five of us always trained together, so we knew what each other was going to do before we did it. I'm guessing that will carry over to now. But Serenity didn't want to take her place as Sailor Moon, so only the four of you worked together. But now Sailor Moon has joined you. Your instincts are telling you to protect her from danger but you also are trying to eliminate the danger. And you have no clue as to what Sailor Moon is going to do in a fight because you don't know how to read her."
Mercury looked at the five men. "So, practice, practice and more practice?"
"Exactly."
"How?" asked Mars. "If I remember correctly, we had a trainer. We really were not considered fully trained even though it was known that we were the strongest Senshi to come along in ages."
Jadeite rubbed his chin. "Well, since we don't have a way to find someone who can train Senshi…we're just going to have to wing it." He looked at his brothers. "Instead of doing what we just did, going from weak youma to super strong ones, let's make them practice with weak ones until they can read each other. The problem would be how to know when they're ready to go to the next level."
"They would be ready when they can defeat ten or more in a row, I would think." Said Zoicite.
Kunzite just shook his head. "We'll figure it out. I don't like winging it. It's…messy." The others chuckled. Kunzite never had been one for doing things off the cuff. "But we don't have a choice."
Moon gazed at them with a pitiful look. "We don't have to start today, do we?"
Endymion pressed a kiss against her temple. "No, sweetheart. Not today."
Moon sighed with relief.
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Over time the Senshi learned to work with each other and with Endymion and the Shitennou.
Kunzite made sure that Endymion and Zoicite paid for their idiocy on the first day of school.
Later on Sailors Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and Saturn joined the group and new fighting techniques were formed for the expanded group.
They fought more enemies who tried to take over the Earth: Demando, Pharaoh 90, Nehelania and Galaxia. They suffered many times but always managed to win…even if it was by the skin of their teeth.
They helped the Earth go to sleep when it became ill and slept with it, helping it heal for a thousand years. When they awoke, they mourned the deaths of the millions of people that they couldn't save from the Big Sleep but set aside their grief to help the millions who survived and needed their help now.
They built the great city of Crystal Tokyo and began to have children. Much to the surprise of everyone, Serenity and Endymion had more than children the single expected daughter. Mercury and Zoicite surmised that it was because a Queen of the Moon had never married a King of the Earth. Pluto informed them that it was because the Queens of the Moon never married in the first place and became pregnant via the Galaxy Cauldron.
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Neo-Queen Serenity sniffled and leaned against her husband. Endymion wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently kissed her cheek. "Don't cry, darling. She'll be home before you know it."
Neo-Queen Serenity sighed. "I know. It's time for her to have her adventures. But regardless off the fact that she's now Sailor Moon, she's still my baby and I don't want her out of my sight."
Queen Venus poked her long-time friend in the arm, "We're all feeling that way."
Queen Jupiter smiled. "It's hard to let them go."
"But we must." Said Queen Mars.
"They'll be fine. They ARE our daughters, after all." Said Queen Mercury.
Their husbands said nothing but handed over handkerchiefs to their wives.
Five young women in sailor uniforms turned back and waved.
"WE LOVE YOU!" They shouted. "WE'LL BE HOME SOON!"
"SAILOR TELEPORT!"
The End