Chapter 5: Recollection
It was easier to get to Luna this time, since Rei and Usagi were now friends. Friends again, actually, although Usagi didn't know that.
"Luna, can you still talk?" Rei asked Luna the next day, she had come by Usagi's house on the pretense of lending Usagi some manga - and found Luna resting on the Tsukino's front step as she left.
Luna sighed, and looked at Rei with sad eyes.
"I remember you know," Rei said again, softly, making sure to pet Luna's head affectionately, so she looked like just a passerby being kind to a cute little kitty cat. "I remember I'm Sailor Mars."
At that, Luna looked right up and seemed surprised. "Rei!" she said suddenly. "I'm glad you remember. I wondered if you wouldn't be the first."
"So I am the first," Rei sighed, sitting on the steps and putting her head on her crossed arms.
"Well, with your psychic abilities, I thought it was only a matter of time." Luna said. "I was watching you for a while."
Luna explained that, while it seemed like Rei had a vague idea of the past, Luna couldn't risk opening her mouth until she knew for sure.
"It's nice to have someone to talk to again!" Luna said finally, after taking a breath from her explaining. "I mean, there is always Artemis but, heh, you know how it is."
"Why can't you talk to Usagi?" Rei demanded, "and everyone else, for that matter, we just tell them who they are, and what happened? If you think a talking cat would surprise them too much, I'll tell them!"
Luna smirked, as best as a cat could smirk. "And if, a few weeks ago, someone came up to you and said you were a magical girl called Sailor Mars and you don't remember because your moon princess wished for a normal life, you'd say-?"
Rei scowled. "I'd- yeah, okay I see your point."
Luna purred and bumped her head against Rei's leg. "You'll all be friends again. You'll see. You are halfway there already."
"Well, Luna, you'll see!" Rei stood up and brushed off her skirt, "They are going to remember. I'll make them remember!"
"Good, I hope you do," Luna said as she padded off, "Usagi's already happier since she met you."
Besides Rei's memories, another bright point that came from Usagi wandering into traffic like an idiot, was Makoto became their friend. Apparently, Ami and Makoto started spending time together at school, eating lunch together and walking to and from school - while Usagi usually spent that time with Naru or her other friends - and became closer all on their own. Usagi, of course, bounded into the mix with her usual enthusiasm, and whenever Rei met them after school or on weekends, it was usually with some combination of the three of them.
And despite their differences and the fact that they no longer had their senshi past to bind them together, everyone got along really well.
Rei was happy.
But not happy enough.
Firstly, she was keeping an eye out for Minako to one day appear at the arcade, since Rei knew she used to hang out there. Rei was seriously a few days away from just waltzing into Minako's house the same way she had Usagi's. But hoping it wouldn't quite come to that.
In the meantime, it was time for Mission Getting-Everyone-to-Remember (so sue her, it was always Minako who came up with the names for missions).
"So, Makoto," Rei said one day, while they waited for Usagi to arrive at Crown (Ami had juku), "isn't it great how we are all friends now?"
"Uh, sure," Makoto said, giving Rei a strange but not unkind look. "Yeah, it worked out really great."
"How we get along so well, so quickly, it's like - we've meet before." Rei leaned forward, her head on her arms, watching Makoto's green eyes carefully for any spark, any hint of recollection.
"Hmm," Makoto said thoughtfully, leaning back in the booth, "you may be right."
Rei sat up straighter and nodded quickly. "Yes, do you reme-"
"I mean, I knew Usagi and Ami from school," Makoto said, "although not very well, but still. And I probably came by Hikawa Shrine a few times to pray." Makoto grinned, "So yeah, we probably had met before."
Rei deflated just as Usagi ran in, apologizing profusely for her tardiness. Rei didn't even have it in her to chide Usagi the way she usually did.
"Also, I forgot your manga at home! Sorry Rei!" Usagi slid into the booth and helped herself to one of Rei's fries. "What were we talking 'bout?" she said around a mouthful of chewed fries.
Rei just sighed.
When Aino Minako finally did enter the Crown arcade after school one day, she found herself immediately accosted by a beautiful girl wearing an expensive looking brand-name sun dress.
"Hi! My name is Rei," the girl said, "Will you join me and my friends? Over at that table." She pointed to a group of happy looking girls Minako's age, seated around a table covered in various ice-cream concoctions.
"Uh... Okay!" Minako chirped. "Why not?"
And thus Minako was brought into the fold. Rei patted herself on the back for a job well done.
Ami, Makoto and Minako all entered the room together, having run into each other on the way to Rei's. They were talking amongst themselves, when suddenly Ami stopped short, a strange expression crossing her face.
"Ami, you okay?" Makoto placed her hand on Ami's shoulder for a moment, looking concerned.
"I'm- fine," Ami blinked and shook her head, a smile settling once again over her features. "I just had the weirdest feeling."
"Like deja vu?" Makoto said, looking around the shrine and at Rei sitting by the fire, staring that them intently.
"Yeah?" Rei said, raising to her feet.
Minako let out a peal of laughter, raising her hand behind her head. "We totally must have come here before."
"Not together though," Rei pressed.
There was a beat. Then Ami shrugged and opened her bookbag as she knelt on the floor. "So, what was that math problem you were having trouble with, Mako-chan?"
The moment was forgotten. And Rei had to stop herself from banging her head against the wall.
"Has anyone had any weird dreams lately?" Rei took a sip from her tea, abruptly interrupting a detailed description from Minako about her latest crush's new haircut.
The girls exchanged glances. "Well, sorta," Makoto said. "I mean, it's nothing too major. But yeah, sometimes I dream- it's nothing."
"No, tell me," Rei said, a little too sharply.
"Yes, tell," Usagi demanded from around a milkshake straw. "Dreams are cool."
"I dreamt I got stuck by lightening."
"Oh my god, that sounds awful!" Minako said.
"Not really," Makoto said, thoughtfully. "I liked it? I felt... powerful."
Rei's breath caught. "What do you think that means?!"
"Actually, dreams can mean any number of things depending on how you interpret them," Ami spoke up. "There are different schools of thought regarding the psychology of what your subconscious could communicating. Then again, it could just be random neuron firings within the-"
Minako and Makoto listened with some interest while Usagi tilted her milkshake glass up over her face to catch the last few drops. The topic was officially changed.
Rei put her head in her hands.
This was going to be harder than she thought.