Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Second Story
AN: Sometimes giving into old standbys helps to create a solution you did not see before.
Feedback is always appreciated. I would love to get some feedback on what I'm doing with this story.
Tokyo, Summer, Present Day
She was praying again. She hated it when she sunk this low, for it was only when she was this hard off that the words even escaped her lips. Back then the her goddess would have heard her pleas for help, but Venus was an unstable and volatile planet now - the rain forests and beautiful, sweeping plains of her memories were long gone in a smolder of sulfuric destruction. The increase of seismic activity had first been Metalia's doing, back in the days of their Queen and Princess' brilliant kingdom.
Mother Venus. She sounded so stupid, so desperate and so pathetic. She had prayed like this so often when she was younger, afraid of what was happening to her – because of the cancer and the personal mission she had resolved to undertake in order to save the rest of them from the fate she had already seen for herself.
All she wanted was understanding – something that she did not possess in this sudden conflict that they had stumbled into. Why were the guardians of the Outer Rim alive in this lifetime? Why was everyone around her telling her to stay out of their fight despite the fact that they had to be involved? Their world was under threat, and by extension, so was the princess.
The harrowing vision that Reiko had seen for the world – the idea of them vanishing into nothingness as the entire planet was engulfed in a red light was terrifying. They crumbled, fading away into nothingness without their powers and no way to fight. She had to find a way to fight back.
Her hair falling into her eyes, Aino Minako sighed deeply. The queen's letter had told her to stay away from Neptune and Uranus. Her powers had come back without a henshin when she was threatened. She did not understand what exactly was going on – only knowing that she had been told again and again what she was not to do.
Everything that was completely antithetical to the existence she'd built for herself.
Mother Venus, grant me understanding so that I am live the life you want me to live. I want to be your avatar in this age, as I was in the last. I want to protect these people that I have come to see as my own. I want to fight – I can fight – grant me the ability to protect my princess from this threat.
She remembered this feeling of confusion and desperation from back then too - when they had stood together watching as their home worlds crumbled from the last great stronghold and refuge of the Silver Millennium. She had hated it at that time too; Told constantly that there was no hope for her home world, for Mars, for Mercury or Jupiter. They had said that the Moon was the only stronghold left for their alliance of kingdoms, and she had believed it with all her heart until the very end.
She remembered the searing pain of Kunzite's blade against her own, pushing through her defense, though her vulnerable and damaged armor. It was a fatal wound – and she had died alone that time too.
Minako hated how no one else remembered the past - and she had given up hope that they ever would. Reiko, sometimes, when Minako allowed herself to believe such things, showed signs that she knew more than what was letting on. She hated herself even more when she allowed herself that delusion.
It was her cross to bear - the gift of memory and so little understanding that Reiko's conviction that someday Usagi would be queen of the Earth seemed an alien concept to her now. Why was it so hard a concept to grasp? They were senshi for a reason; they had a duty and a mission to protect the princess at all costs.
Minako remembered all too clearly the last time they had failed to do their duty.
She had had trouble accepting that fate too.
Inhale, Exhale. Inhale, Exhale.
Grant me the power once more, my goddess.
The power gathered all around her, as she concentrated, cross-legged on the balcony of her hotel room looking out over the pre-dawn gray light that filtered through the Tokyo Skyline. She would start to glow soon if she wasn't careful - but the feeling of power once again was like a drug. Not since they had found the sword and had defeated Kuroki Mio had she felt this power.
Aino Minako felt invincible.
She stood, the power shimmering in the air around her as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. In the morning, before the air was clogged with the pollution of the city and a dampness still hung in the air, she could be truly at peace. "Venus Star Power," she whispered, feeling the pen in her hand for the first time in what felt like years.
Her henshin fell into place almost instantly and Venus felt like herself once more. Aino Minako was the only one of the Princess' Guard who actively embraced her identity not only as the human, but also as the reincarnated soul of a Venusian senshi that had been considered by many to be the best of her kind.
With the power buzzing all around her, she climbed up onto the balcony railing and leaned back on her heels. It was a long drop, not one that she would have attempted when she was younger. But now she was in her prime - the henshin was the one that she had had in the past. She could do anything she had done then - and better now.
She was contemplating the merits of jumping, to see if she could make it to the next building from here. It would be a slight push on her abilities, but she had her chain if anything were to go wrong. She wouldn't get hurt.
Never again.
The door behind her slid open and the quiet voice of Artemis grunted with the exertion. He pushed his way around the small opening that he'd made and stared at her with an obviously shocked expression on his feline face.
Minako knew she should have locked the door.
"Your powers are back?" He asked, his tone disbelieving. "Why?"
She understood why he was confused. He had told her long ago that they would probably never have to fight again after they had come back from the dead on Usagi's good will. He'd said the same thing after Kuroki Mio had come back and had started to meddle in their carefully constructed peace. They'd been given the second chance then too – and now it seemed that it was being threatened once more. And this time the threat seemed creditable.
Minako sighed, and stepped down from the railing, her transformation and Venus' power fading as she did so. She hadn't seen Artemis the previous evening - thinking that there was a good chance that he had spent the night with Luna. She hadn't had a chance to tell him about the attacks or what she had witnessed in the park. Rei's vision was also at the forefront of her mind as she tried to figure out where to start her explanation.
"Last night some things happened." She began, not really looking at him. She did not want to see his face as she spoke. She knew what his expression would look like, fearful and betrayed. She did not want to see that face ever again. "There was an attack in the park. Civilians, bad injuries, and a very strong youma. Mars and I - I don't even know how Artemis - we fought back. I used my abilities without transforming; she did too, but only once. I did it over and over and over."
Artemis frowned, his expression as thoughtful as a cat's could be. "How do you feel now?"
It was a strange question, considering Minako hadn't even told him about the worst of the previous evening yet. She wouldn't tell him of the orders that she'd gotten from Serenity. She was too afraid of what he might say - and she did not want his disapproval.
"I feel alright. A lot better than before..." She trailed off, thinking of how much fighting used to take out of her back then. She had had a lot on her plate then, but now her life was far less of a gigantic lie than it had been then - and being able to be somewhat honest with people had relieved so much unnecessary stress from her life that Minako wondered sometimes how she had ever managed to keep up the facade for as long as she had.
She leaned against the railing, surveying him with interest, looking to gauge his reaction. "Mars and I did not defeat the youma." She said her face as neutral as possible.
Artemis' eyes widened. "You couldn't do it? How could you just let it get away? You could have called everyone -" he trailed off, looking confused. "Then who?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She laughed.
Artemis looked affronted. "Try me."
Minako had been debating telling him anyway - but now she simply had to see his reaction. He was always so adorable when he was in shock or surprised or being messed with. Minako knew Artemis very, very well. This would blow his mind.
Possibly not in a good way - though.
"Senshi I never thought I'd see again after our initial training with them all those years ago." She said. "They told us to stay out of the grown-up's fights and to avoid the conflict. I got a letter from Queen Serenity that echoed that sentiment."
Artemis' reaction was underwhelming and he looked resigned. "I knew that this day would come."
It was Minako's turn to look alarmed. "What? How?"
Artemis began to pace the balcony, his expression serious. "The queen told us long ago - when Luna and I were first charged with this mission that the Time Guardian had seen a future for the Earth and had shared it with her. They were great friends - you know - even if they never told anyone of their friendship."
Minako shook her head, "It was a very poorly kept secret." The Time Guardian would come to see the Queen on occasion when Minako was guarding her. The woman was tall and always silent, but there was a quiet companionship between her and the queen. Minako had been jealous of that relationship back then – wishing for that sort of companionship when her closest personal relationship at the time was fraught with conflict.
Artemis shrugged. "The queen told us that she had put precautions in place before she lost control of the ginzouishou to her daughter and Metalia that would enable her senshi to be reborn on Earth when the time was right. And that they were to protect the Earth like it was their home."
"And the Guardians of the Outer Rim were included in this?" Minako asked, curious. She had never heard anything of this - but it did make sense. The idea of the one they never spoke of, the harbinger of death and destruction, being reborn however - was more than her mind wanted to entertain thoughts of at the moment.
"I guess so." Artemis sighed. "I take it you do not intend to follow Serenity's orders?"
Minako sighed. "I can't commit treason any more, Artemis. I did my fair share of that during the Past Life and this is one instance of insubordination that I believe I'm allowed. I can't stand by and let this city be at risk - even if everyone and the queen's mother wants me to stay out of it." She closed her eyes. "I think we're meant to be involved. Mars has had visions of the future and it is bleak without our powers."
"How did yours return?" Artemis looked skeptical, as though he could not believe what he had seen just moments before.
A slight half-smile crossing her face, Minako said airily, "I asked Mother Venus."
"I thought you'd vowed to not go back to the old ways."
She had. It had done her no favors back then, when she was sick and dying and wanted to lose herself in her mission. Now she could control what was going on and that filled her with a sense of great purpose as well as a confidence that she had only been able to fake so well when she had been so desperate to avoid human contact back then. "I had no choice, Artemis." It was the truth. It was the act of meditating and prayer that had helped her to focus her powers was enough to say to Minako that there was something to be said for the act of concentration and prayer.
She exhaled quietly. Her head was pounding with the exertion of grasping her henshin once again. She wanted to sleep for a day or two, but she had to get her day started – or else she would fall behind and be scrambling for the rest of the week to catch up on the pre-release schedule for her new album.
All of a sudden, the pain intensified greatly in her head as a surge of power, an aura she had not felt in years pushed itself through all of her consciousness. The pain was so much that her knees trembled and she sank to the cool concrete of the balcony. "Usagi…" she muttered as Artemis hurried to her side. "Usagi has been attacked."