Three months passed slowly. Venus stayed with Serenity for almost the entire duration of her days. The two became very close in the time, Venus often spending hours upon hours with the miserable princess. It took a while, but the other Princesses came around in the end. Things were still a bit tense between the five at first, but with the two blondes getting along, things began to fall into a normal pattern.
Meals were eaten in near quiet, polite conversation happening between the girls, and training followed each time. Venus refused to talk to Artemis and he was perfectly fine with that himself, finding the vain girl to be a bother and hindrance on his work. One night, a month or so after all contact with Earth had ceased, Luna and Artemis sat quietly in the private garden that had once been a secret meeting place for higher ups.
"Artemis, surely you don't think that you can ignore your partner forever," Luna began, sipping at her tea.
"Luna, you see how she is. She's vain and childish and she believes that love is the only thing that matters." Artemis sighed and nibbled at his cookie, looking up at Earth. "We can't align ourselves to them; they're too different from us. She'd get nothing but heartbreak from partnering with a man from Earth."
Luna sighed, her ears lowering. "Yes, I do feel the same about Serenity. She's young, but she does love that Earthling man. The Queen pities her, but there is no rest on Earth. No peace, no tranquility. An alliance with them would mean only disaster for us. They're too young to know any better."
Artemis took a hard bite from his snack. "And Venus, she's not a leader at all, she's just a spaced out little girl who flirts with any man who looks at her…"
Luna grinned and snickered. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous, dear Artemis."
The white cat seemed to turn pink. "N-no, of course not… You're the only cat for me, Luna."
Up in the castle, Venus was sprawled out on a couch in a long casual dress, her hair being braided by Serenity. The Moon Princess was lounging in a simple skirt and top, a silver belt around her waist, her hair loose and flowing gracefully over the couch. Mars was sitting by the fire, concentrating on the Generals and Prince from Earth, garbed in her Sailor Uniform. Mercury looked like she was reading, but mostly she just stared out the window, sighing wistfully. Jupiter was nowhere to be seen because she had gotten permission to use the kitchen and was busy baking goodies for the girls, the calming effect of being in the kitchen making it easier for her to forget the gentle yet stern faced man with the long chestnut colored hair.
"Venus, have you thought about what that woman said at the ball?" Serenity tied off the braid she had been doing for the girl and added the bow to it, smiling at her work.
"Oh Sere, of course I have… Are you doing alright?" Venus peeked up at her and the two smiled a little at one another. The cats were having a lot of meetings lately, and it left them plenty of time to talk about the men they had met briefly.
"You know, if we all combine our powers, I believe we would be able to travel to Earth for a day," Mercury piped up, closing her book.
Mars lost her concentration and looked over at the aqua haired girl. "…Really? Do you think it's possible?" Although Mars still had a fiery temper, she had calmed down and settled into her role as one of Serenity's guards. She was even pleasant to Venus at times.
"Well, with the way training has been going lately, our powers have all increased considerably. Jupiter can summon storms from her home planet, Mars can destroy stone with her flames, I can shatter boulders with my ice, and you can do a lot of damage with that whip of yours, Venus. And Princess Serenity…"
"Can sit in the corner and watch, I know," she mumbled, sighing.
"Well, yes, there is the problem with you not being able to train… but you have powers too, of course. I just… don't know what they are yet." Mercury sighed and rubbed at her jaw, thinking. "We could always try to train you without Luna or Artemis knowing." Mercury considered it for a moment, going over the chances of success versus their failures. "Yes, we could do that. I've been looking over the maps and there is a place that no one goes to anymore. I believe we could train you there and find out just what your powers are. And once we know, we could focus on improving them."
"Really Mercury, could we?" Serenity's eyes were big. Could she really help? Was it possible she could actually be of use?
"We'd have to be very careful no one found out," Mars said, giving up on trying to find the Generals for now. "If Luna or Artemis knew, we'd be in so much trouble."
"Then we'll just have to be extra careful," Venus said. "Come on, let's go find Jupiter and tell her the news."
"Tell me what?" Jupiter stood in the doorway with an apron on over her casual attire, a large plate of cookies in her hands.
"We're going to try and train Serenity so we can get her power to help us find the Generals and the Prince," Venus replied, grinning.
"Oh! Sounds great, when do we begin?"
"Tomorrow?" Sere poked her fingers together nervously. "But I don't have a uniform like you all do…"
"Let's make you one!" Jupiter grinned and ran into her room. She came out with a bunch of materials and sat down on a chair. "Uh, you may have to wear just… your under clothes, Princess. I'll need to measure you."
"Oh, alright!" Serenity went into her room and got changed, coming out in a tank top and small shorts, lace and frills and bows decorating them. "Are these alright?"
"Yes, they're fine!" Jupiter beamed and took out a piece of string. After writing down some things, she began to sketch and mumble. "Oh hey, what colors do you like?"
"Well, I like red, and blue, and pink, and white…" Serenity ticked off various colors. The girls all giggled and set to work helping her out.
"I think you'd fit into a pair of my boots," Mercury piped up, going into her room to get the blue boots and offering them to the Princess. "I haven't worn them yet as I haven't worn out these ones…"
"They're so pretty, Mercury! Thank you!"
"You'll need a tiara…"
"And a couple bows!"
"Don't forget the choker!"
The girls spent that afternoon fashioning Princess Serenity a uniform. By the end of the day, she had her own unique outfit to wear, with a dark blue skirt, reddish-pink bows on her chest and lower back, pink boots, arm length gloves, a tiara with a pink stone in it, hair clips for her buns, a choker, earrings…
"Wow, I really feel like I could be one of you now!" Serenity grinned. "But what should my name be?"
"Sailor Moon, of course," Venus replied, sticking out her tongue.
The girls finally went to bed, thinking about training tomorrow. What would happen and how would they keep everything a secret?
In the morning, Mercury woke everyone up. She had a whole plan set for how they would train Serenity, where they should go, the times they could use… Everyone got ready and went to breakfast. Sere was the one to ask Luna if they could take a picnic for good behavior.
"Luna, it's been an awfully long time since we left the palace for any reason apart from training… Do you think we could go on a picnic today? We won't go too far."
"Well, it has been a long time since you girls did anything fun… I suppose it would be alright. Artemis and I will join you shortly after breakfast."
"We can't Luna, the Queen wanted to have a meeting today!" Artemis's ears were lowered in annoyance and he glared at Venus. The meeting might be about her…
"Oh, yes. Well, in that case, I don't think…"
"Please Luna! The girls can protect me. Haven't they been doing well in training?" Serenity pouted a bit and looked pleadingly at her guardian cat.
"Well… I suppose… You are going to stay in the dome…"
"Of course! Nothing can happen as long as we stay in the dome!"
"Then alright. Be back before sunset."
"Thank you so much Luna!" Serenity leaned over and kissed the black cat's head. The cat mumbled something and cleared her throat.
The girls left to go get ready for the picnic. Really they were getting Serenity's new outfit and slipping it into a bag. They took Venus's sword and somehow hid it, just in case they really did truly need it. With Mercury guiding them, the five went to a very secluded part of the dome. Trees were everywhere, the castle was just in sight, the border was far enough away that no one could ask what they were doing…
"Alright, go get changed Sere. We'll get set up." Venus waved to the Princess and the three sailors stood around Mercury, all discussing what they should start with. And once they had everything figured out, they got into position.
Sailor Moon entered the clearing. Mercury was standing on the far side, Mars towards Sere, Jupiter and Venus simply watching. Out of the corner of her eye, Sere saw the intelligent Scout flick her hand. Something cold and wet and partially solid hit her in the stomach.
"Ah! What was that?!"
"We're training you, Sailor Moon. We need to find out what powers you have. But we don't want to hurt you. So to start, I will be training you with slush orbs." Mercury looked a little sheepish about it.
"Oh, alright… That makes sense." Sailor Moon smiled and got into a stance. Mercury flicked another ball of slush at her and hit her in the collar bone.
For three hours they trained, but in the end, nothing really changed, except that Sere got very wet an a bit cold. Finally Mars started a small fire and the girls warmed up, supping on the food that they had brought.
"This is really hard," Sere said, having changed back into her dress and putting her outfit away once it dried.
"Well, you've never had any training, we've all had at least a bit before we arrived," Mars said, patting the Princess's arm.
"We'll train again soon," Jupiter said, offering some of the cookies she had baked earlier.
"Yeah, all you need to do is think about Endymion and how badly you want to see him again. Your powers will develop soon," Venus added.
The five went back to the castle and to their rooms. Sighing, Venus got ready for bed and took out her diary to write in. She looked up at the Earth and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, smiling a little. "Soon, Kunzite," she murmured, wistfully sighing.
Artemis sat in a chair, glaring at the so called leader of the scouts. He was not pleased with her attitude.
A/N: I figure I should at least finish this story since I started it. Poor Sailor Moon, doesn't know her powers yet… This chapter may be a bit short, I'm sorry! Still trying to get back into the swing of writing.
2017 A/N: Nothing too big needed changing here, it was a very standard chapter.