...
I, I didn't know...
Know just how the story...
Just how the story goes...
You picked me up when I was down,
Put a smile on my face, lifted me up off the ground...
Now, after all of this time, why does it hurt?
Why does it feel like my heart is breaking?
Now, seeing your face,
Brings out all the memories
That I don't want to remember...
I, I didn't know...
Know just how the story...
Just how the story goes...
"Let go of me!" Sailor V pushed away from Tuxedo Kamen as soon as the Youma was gone. "Don't touch me..." His hands went upwards in a surrendering motion and V could only stand there out of breath as she took in everything around her. They were safe... They were alive...
"Sailor Moon!" Jupiter's voice rang out and Sailor V whipped around to see her kneeling over Sailor Moon whom she had been carrying just moments before. The big girl shook the small frame in her arms again gently trying to get her to open up her eyes again. She just looked so pale, and her eyes were closed again.
"Sailor Moon?!" V's hand touched her face, and even through the glove she could feel how cold she was becoming. "Sailor Moon!" The girl's eyes did not open and V's hand went to her nose. "She's hardly breathing!" V's voice came out panicked. This was her fault! If she had just told Sailor Moon the truth in the first place none of this would have happened! Sailor Moon wouldn't have risked so much for V if she knew she wasn't really Serenity. That it was all a ruse!
Sailor V pressed Sailor Moon close against her knowing that it wasn't true. "Wake up!" She begged. Sailor Moon would have risked herself for V even if she had known the truth. She would always risk herself for them! "Please..." The rest of the Senshi stood around them, and V didn't think she heard any of them breathing were as before they had all been panting for breath. A hand touched Sailor V's shoulder.
"Please, let me." A voice begged just as sorrowfully as V's own, but more calm. Sailor V looked upwards to see Tuxedo Kamen still there with them. In all the other battles he had left almost instantly, but she guessed that those times had been different. No one had been seriously hurt.
"No." Sailor V pressed Sailor Moon even tighter. Who was he? Who was he to cause so much chaos in V?! Her heart trusted him fully despite of herself, but her brain and reason screamed caution! "You don't touch her." Sailor V ordered
"Venus."
"Don't use that name!" V shouted. She was losing it.
"Let him try." Mercury begged this time. "Venus, we have nothing to lose by letting him. He can't try anything shady with us here." She reasoned.
"You saw the power he used tonight." Mars agreed. "Perhaps he can-" Yes. Power that had destroyed the youma in a single blast as it had hit it from behind. Power that V had never seen him use before. Still she clung to Sailor Moon who was looking weaker by the second...
"Venus, please." She looked up into his eyes, the eyes that tried to always lure her in to trusting him even though they were covered by a silky white mask. But were hers any different?
No. They were the same. His was just as panicked as hers, and determined to protect Sailor Moon; always. He had made V promise to do the same even before she knew that it was what she was meant to do, and what she needed to. Sailor V's heart began to slow as she looked up at him. Could she trust him?
Yes!
No!
Her mind and heart were raging a vicious battle within her, but soon it wouldn't matter if Sailor Moon died there in her arms.
"Okay." Sailor V's grip on Sailor Moon tightened as Tuxedo Kamen's hand began to glow and he touched Moon's forehead gently as if he were simply going to move her bangs out of the way and kiss her forehead just as gently. At first her skin remained pale and cold, but slowly, to V's relief, she felt Sailor Moon begin to stir and her skin began to return to normal.
"Its working!" Jupiter exclaimed beside them. Sailor V breathed normally for the first time he had touched her forehead, and as soon as she was certain that what Jupiter said was true, her gaze looked up at Tuxedo Kamen's face to see that his face did not reflect her's and the others' relief.
His face was still blank, but she could detect that he was still worried. Sailor V's hand moved upwards fully intending to land on his shoulder in support, but to V's surprise, Mars' was already there. The two's faces were almost identical in their blank worry, and it disturbed V even more. She had never noticed it before because she had never seen the two of them together, but the trust she felt in her heart about Tuxedo Kamen was on the same level and feeling as the trust she felt for Mars. How could that be? She had known Mars for... well technichally a day, but they had history together. They knew everything about each others' past lives, they had shared the same sorrows. Tuxedo Kamen was truly a stranger, and they had never shared anything with each other... except... Sailor V looked down at Sailor Moon again who was looking healthy again and as if she were simply sleeping. Sailor V looked back up at Tuxedo Mask again with her heart racing wildly. He knew her name as Venus, he had known Serenity's name, he had said Serenity had called out to him in a dream; a dream that Venus had seen herself.
"Endymion?!" Could it be? Was he reborn in this time too? Sailor V's muscles tensed up even more around Sailor Moon as Serenity's scream from so long ago echoed in her ears as Endymion's body fell to the floor. "It... it would explain... almost everything." His attraction to Sailor Moon from the very begining, his need to protect her, but... not his power. He had no powers in their previous life besides having the occasional vision and... dreams.
"Where?" V's voice was a shock out of the silence that had surrounded them all. Tuxedo Kamen looked down at her still with a blank expression. "Where did you get this power?" He shook his head.
"I don't know." He said. "I just... woke up with it, and something else too. When Sailor Moon wakes up in a little bit, I have to talk to her alone. Just for a moment." His voice was stronger now, and determined. "Please." Sailor V nodded slowly.
"Alright." The others all turned to her with shocked expressions. A moment ago she wouldn't even let Tuxedo Kamen touch her! What had caused this change. "But if you hurt her..." V's voice was suddenly angry. "You'll have to answer to me. I'll whip your sorry hide quicker than you could think up your next mysterious attack!" The other's paled at her sudden change in self and voice, but Tuxedo Kamen had to smile at her.
"I can always trust you to do that." He said.
"Its a promise." V agreed. And if he truly was Endymion, than soon he would remember her saying the exact same thing to him long ago.
"Sailor Moon?" Sailor Moon's eyes fluttered open and the world around her was in a haze. "Sailor Moon?"
"V-chan?" Her face came into view and Sailor V smiled happily down at her. "You're alright..." Sailor Moon whispered, and she began to sit up. She felt... so much better. Almost rejuvinated. Sailor V laughed but there was a struggled relief behind it as V pressed her close.
"You're the one who was in danger!" V complained and then she pulled away.
"Don't you ever do that to us again!" Sailor Moon looked to her right to see Mars scowling down at her. "You scared the living daylights out of us all!"
"I think she can agree to promise not to do it again." Jupiter said patting Sailor Moon's head gingerly. "Right?" Sailor Moon smiled meekly and nodded.
"And we'll make sure it never happens again." Mercury confided. Sailor Jupiter and V grabbed hold of Sailor Moon's arms and began to pull her up slowly, and she found herself able to stand with out a problem.
'Its like I wasn't even injured." She whispered in surprise.
"That would be because of a certain someone." Mars said cheerfully. "He's waiting to talk to you."
"H-he?" Sailor Moon question. She wasn't following the conversation, but then it clicked in her mind. "Tuxedo Kamen-sama?!" She asked in surprise. He was safe! It hadn't just been a dream! He had never been in danger. The others nodded happily.
"Who else silly?" Mars demanded. Sailor Moon looked around anxiously. She didn't see him.
"Where?" Sailor V's arm rose and Sailor Moon looked up at the roof to see his silhouette against the bright Moon above, and he stood turned away from them.
"He wants to talk to you alone." Sailor V explained, and Sailor Moon looked back at her in surprise. "I've agreed to let him, just this once."
"Really?" Sailor V nodded. This didn't make since. She had thought V hated Tuxedo Kamen! But she guessed that they owed him a favor what he had done tonight, and V knew it.
"Go." Sailor V was smiling slightly, and Moon's heart began to race. What did he want to talk about?! She looked back up at him and began to make her way to him, but with each step her heart began to race even more.
V stood looking up at the two dark figures above who were talking with each other. The others stood by her, and she knew they must be thinking the same thing she was.
"We should have died tonight." V finally spoke the elephant in the room aloud. Yes. They should have died. The Youma were much more powerful than anything they had ever face, and they had been completely out matched. She turned to the others and she could see on their face that they knew it too.
"When Sailor Moon was caught, I was certain it was the end of everything." Jupiter whispered, and Mars stood silently beside her. Mercury brought out her computer.
"When Sailor Moon used her attack she..." Mecury paused. "She completely elliminated the outside force the others were being supported by. She weakedened them, all of them, and in the process she destroyed the two youma easily.
"She unleased power that was sleeping within her." V said and she looked upwards towards the two figures. "Stronger than anything she's used before."
"The Silver Crystal?" Mars asked reading into what V was saying. V nodded.
"Yes." V confirmed. The others looked upwards at the two. "She's awakening."
"But, what about Tuxedo Kamen?" Jupiter asked. "What about his power?" Mercury shook her head.
"His energy reading was different, but just as powerful. It was so strange, I would have never guessed it had come from Tuxedo Kamen if I hadn't seen it myself. Never before had I received a reading like that from him." Mercury said quickly.
"I think Tuxedo Kamen is Endymion." V spoke the words seemingly out of no where. The others froze.
"But- but-" Mercury couldn't even finish her complaint, as they kept staring up at the two. V could tell that each of them was going through the same evaluation of information V had just gone through while holding Sailor Moon. It was only a few seconds later that it seemed they had come to the same conclusion as well. "That doesn't explain his power though." V shook her head.
"I don't understand any of this." V complained. "Not a single bit of it. From what you've told me to the things I've discovered myself, I can't put the pieces together! None of them fit!" The others could only keep silent. They had nothing to say, nothing to tell her.
They could only keep watching the two above them as they talked in the moonlight.
Tuxedo Kamen watched Sailor Moon move closer to the bottom of the building nervously. Even in her most awkward of movements, there was something about them that had always captured his heart, and right now, knowing that she was headed to him, it was causing his heart to pound furiously, and the warm feeling that had erupted in his heart early that day was growing stronger and burned him inside. Sailor Moon's eyes flickered upwards again towards him and the moonlight reflected in her eyes causing them to shimmer, and Tuxedo Kamen's heart to melt. He kept seeing visions in his head, pouring in slowly but consistently, showing him and her together, but in an entirely different world than the world they knew just then.
"Serenity..." He whispered her name softly and as he did so her image came back smiling brightly in his mind with a red rose woven into on of her silver-white dangos. He had spoken the truth to Venus down bellow. He had woken up with these powers, and with it had come something else: a trickle of memories. He remembered bits and pieces of it all. He could remember Serenity, and sometimes he would even remember something about the other Senshi. Apparently, Venus had never liked him being by Serenity, even back then.
And there was something in the back of his mind telling him that Venus had been right. He could not wrap his mind around the later parts of the memories just yet, but he could tell that their love affair had ended badly, perhaps deadly, and the thought of that made his blood run cold. What if it had been his fault, what if, like Venus suggested, he had hurt her in the past? What if... what if Usagi didn't want anything to do with him? He wouldn't be able to stand it! How could he? Knowing what he did? If he had to go on and marry Kimi...
"Kimi." His heart sank at finally remembering his fiancé, but the sight of Sailor Moon, Usagi, jumping upwards towards him lifted it back up again.
"Sailor Moon..." Her name floated out of his lips like a soft puff of wind. She was beautiful as she stood there in the moonlight.
"Tuxedo Kamen-sama." She answered in reply, as she stepped forward blushing and she looked even more nervous than Tuxedo Kamen felt, if that were possible. "V said you had something to discuss with me." She whispered. He stood there a moment just taking her in. She... she didn't remember. He could see it somewhere in her eyes. She looked at him, but she did not remember. Her eyes were too... he couldn't explain it. They were too young... Younger than Venus' and the others'. They remembered. He could see it in their eyes. Especially Venus' and Mars', but it was there in all of their eyes, but not Sailor Moon's. How could that be? Wasn't Sailor Moon the key to them all remembering themselves?
He stepped closer to her. It didn't matter though, if she remembered or not. As long as she was his. As long as she was safe, and within his reach. "Thank you." She said finally. They had been standing there in silence for too long he realized. He hadn't even came up with one single thing to say to her. "Thank you for saving me, for helping to save V-chan." She smiled suddenly. A smile that almost broke him into bending down and kissing her right there, but he couldn't. It would only shock her, and probably send V up here wielding that chain around her waist violently because of his too quick motion. He had a feeling that was the chain's real purpose, and that it wasn't just an accessory like Jupiter's purple one. "She means a lot to me." Tuxedo Kamen had to smile now at Usagi's brightness.
"I'm sure she does." He agreed. Was this it?! Was this all he could say to her?! He had ran around Juban for an hour searching for her, and this was all he could say?! But what would she make of what he wanted to say? What he needed to say? "I missed you, I love you, I'll protect you." She wouldn't be able to understand it... Missed her? How could she understand that without her memories? She wouldn't know how his heart had ached each time they had seen each other on the street and he had to force himself to walk away. His mind went back to all the times she had talked to him and he wanted to smack himself; he felt like an idiot. "She was pushing me away... For the same reasons I was..." Sailor Moon kept her gaze on him, and he realized how close they had gotten and how silent they had been for the past minute. "Sailor Moon..." He was only an inch or two away from her, and he could feel the air around them easing. This was the way it was suppose to be. With them together. With them as one. All he needed to do was lean his head downward, to kiss her.
As he thought this he found his body responding in obliging him, and he was bending downward. She was so beautiful; like the moonlight. His breath touched her skin and her scent filled him with an even stronger desire to take her in his arms. He had missed her so much...
"Tuxedo Kamen-sama..." Her voice was so soft and sweet. Her eyes closed and he knew she was waiting, giving him permission to kiss her. Perhaps begging him to kiss her. She didn't remember, but... her soul was just as restless as his. Had she missed him just as much as he had missed her? Had she missed him even more? His hand went under her chin and he tilted her head upwards towards his.
His lips floated above hers for a moment as he took her in once more, and then he moved to kiss her.
But it didn't happen...
Tuxedo Kamen stood there with his hand under her chin, and staring at her lovely face, but he could not move in to finish what he had started. This felt so right, and yet, he couldn't. There was something still in the way, and he knew exactly what it was. It was something Kimi had cursed him for so many times before, but he had never budged. But at this moment, he hated himself for it just as much as Kimi had hated him whenever he had refused her in what she had wanted. Sailor Moon's eyes opened and her blue eyes met his, could she see the pain this was causing him? Yes, she could. He could see her face change before him, and in it was even understanding.
"I can't." Sailor Moon's eyes saddened as the words escaped his lips. He was hurting her just as much if he had plunged a physical dagger through her heart, but perhaps even that would have been less painful. He would never forgive himself for this. Never, never, never. "Then just kiss her!" He ordered himself, but then it was something more than just his honor keeping him from completing the kiss. It was as if a physical chain was wrapped around him, keeping him away from her. It was the same chain that had kept him from leaving Kimi in the first place. If he could just kiss Usagi, just kiss her, he would be free of it! He just knew it. "Kiss her!"
"I understand." Her words stopped him again and he looked at her in surprise. Did she really? She couldn't! She didn't know what held... oh.
"She knows who I am. She's known for awhile now." He didn't understand how he knew that exactly, but he knew it was true. Sailor Moon pulled away from him first, and Tuxedo Kamen found himself without her warmth beside him once more as he stood up straight. "No! This wasn't how it was suppose to end! Kiss her you baka!" Tuxedo Kamen instead turned around. He couldn't look her in the eyes anymore. She looked so hurt, and yet forgiving. He raced away from her and her sorrowful eyes. Had there been tears in her eyes when he had turned away? The tears he had vowed to dry had come in real life at his own fault. He would never forgive himself now! He looked back at her shrinking figure for just an instant, but then he forced himself to press forward. He would be back. "I swear it!" He would come back. He would find her, and then there would be nothing in their way. He just... had something to do first. He had to be completely free to give himself to her, and when he was, he would be back in an instant. "Kimi deserves at least this much."
The flame in his heart was raging wildly and his hand pressed up against it as he ran.
"I've just got one thing I need to take care of, and then I'll be back. I promise..."
The tears stung in Sailor Moon's eyes as she tried to blink them back to where they had come.
"Sailor Moon?" Jupiter's voice broke through her hazy thoughts as the larger girl now stood beside her, and she could hear the others jumping upwards to join them on the rooftop. They stood a few feet behind her as she stood staring after Tuxedo Kamen.
"As... As long as he is happy." She said finally through her tears. How stupid she had been to think he would just abandon his fiance for her! How silly she had been to get her hopes up! He had been right to stop. Sailor Moon blinked more furiously to push back the tears. "I'm happy, if he is too." She said. "It will... be..." She was breaking into a torrent of sobs despite her attempt to stop it, "okay." She finished the statement with a staggered breath and she began to cry loudly.
"Sailor Moon..." Jupiter's voice was sorrowful and she moved to put her hand on her shoulder comfortingly. Sailor Moon covered her face with her gloved hands as she cried, and Jupiter's arm moved from her shoulder and wrapped around her comfortingly. Her hands removed themselves from her face and she wrapped them around herself as she cried. "As- long- as- he's- safe." She stated through sobs, and she gasping for air as she cried.
Safe...
As long as he was happy and safe...
"Serenity!"
Sailor Moon's eyes opened wide as she saw his hand reaching out for her, but as soon as the vision came it changed and he was then standing in front of her.
Their garden...
Their romance...
She could feel his soft lips on her cheek, and the voices, the crackled memories were seeping through as if they were happening right that moment.
"We can't fall in love, but perhaps its already too late."
"You snuck down to Earth again, didn't you?!"
Sailor Moon's own giggle echoed in her ears, but again the memory changed. A tall woman with long flowing white hair sat looking down at her with a sad, remorseful, expression on her face.
"Serenity, you must always keep the star in your heart shining strong to defeat the dark and evil souls. That is your most important mission, Serenity..."
Sailor Moon stood wide eyed as the scenes continued to come and everything else around her fell away as she fell to her knees while staring up at the shining Moon high above them. As she fell, though, she remembered falling to her knees once before; so long ago.
"Serenity!"
"Endymion!"
Her eyes closed violently as the memory filled her and she covered her ears. She didn't want to remember this! It was too terrible! The evil creature's image flashed in her mind and the fire in its eyes pierced through her soul as his blood slashed onto her face once more.
"Endymion!" Sailor Moon screamed at the top of her longs and her scream merged with the scream in her memory as if she were seeing it for real again. Her head snapped back and her eyes opened wide as she gasped for air.
A bright light was coming from her forehead and her entire chest was burning as she felt the cool ribbons encase her body; completely transforming her.
"NOOO!" Her eyes closed tightly again and a single tear fell from her face. An intense surge of power flowed through her and a bright light illuminated the entire rooftop as the tear crystalized in front of them all. Sailor Moon's eyes opened again and she could only sit there breathing as the newly formed crystal floated in front of her with its radiant shine in beautiful unison with The Moon that lay behind it.
Serenity couldn't even speak as she watched The Silver Crystal shimmer before her and landed in her now outstreached, gloveless hand.
With it came the pain and the look she had been missing in her eyes a few moments before.
The memories of the past were now hers.
Serenity's head lay against her right arm as she sat leaning over Makoto's dinning room table. Her long hair cascaded all around her, and it flowed out over the floor in beautiful, golden locks along with the flowing white dress that now covered her features. Her left hand was pressed tightly over her heart and within her grasp was The Silver Crystal that no longer shone with its previous radiance.
The Senshi stood behind her in the kitchen looking out sadly over their newly awakened Princess. None of them had undone their transformations. How could they with Usagi still like this? Still as Princess Serenity?
Serenity was no longer crying like she had been as they had lead her to Makoto's place, fairly relieved they didn't have to worry about taking her home for the night. Though she was silent now, her head refused to come up off the table, but at least her breathing had returned to normal. No one had spoken a word to each other since entering the house.
"Usagi-chan!" The voice rang out from the front of the house, and for some reason it did not startle or surprise any of them. They had been expecting it, but perhaps not this soon. The Senshi's backs straightened. This was too early. Serenity, Usagi, had gone through too much tonight!
Luna came into the dinning room running at full speed.
"Usagi-chan!" The cat jumped up onto the table quickly, and The Senshi entered the room. Each took a protective stance around Serenity. "I saw the sky, the news about the fight. I felt..." The cat's voice rushed. "Are you alright?!" Serenity's hands balled into tight fists.
"I'm alright." She whispered, and her head began to raise slowly.
"You remember?" Luna asked leaning closer to Serenity. "You remember the past? Right, Usagi-chan?" Usagi could only stare at Luna. The other Senshi's gaze was a hard and unforgiving glare. Usagi's own was not hardened like the others, but she had a strange look Luna couldn't name as she stared at the cat before her. She looked like she was talking to a complete stranger. "What? What is it?" Luna asked.
"I do remember." Usagi confirmed. "I remember... the past." Luna's heart soared.
"Now we can begin to..." Usagi was still watching Luna with that strange look. It was as if Usagi's mind couldn't comprehend Luna as she stood there in front of her. "Usagi-chan?"
"Luna, I-I-" Usagi stopped. Several tears were now glissening at the end of her eyelashes. Her voice was soft and in disbelief. "I don't remember you." She said finally. Luna blinked.
"What?" Luna didn't understand this. "You haven't remembered everthing?" Luna asked. Usagi's head tilted slightly to the left.
"Luna," Usagi was still staring at her with that same confused look. Her next statement came out almost like a question. "You weren't there."