Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ After the Battle is Over ❯ Chapter 11 The Begining ( Chapter 11 )

Dear Readers: I am so sorry this took so long to get out. School just got to be more then I thought it would and doing this completely flew out of my head for a while. Once I sat down and got writing, I was able to get this out pretty quickly. I've figured out this is going to be a little longer then I had previously thought but I am going to finish it never fear. I hope you enjoy this addition!

Thanks to everyone who wrote me back after Chapter 10! I'm glad your enjoying it and from the sounds of things I'm managing to do what I wanted to with this. *S* Thanks!!

Disclaimers: Same as in Chapter 1....why on earth would they change!

Chapter 11: The Beginning.....

Pluto's POV

It seemed to happen as if in slow motion. First her eyes widened in disbelief, then her hands came up to her face in horror and finally she launched herself across the space between the couch she had been sitting on, and Serenity-sama's chair. The final element was the cry of anguish she gave when she got her arms around her throughly astonished teenager. She hauled her up out of our Prince's lap as if she weighed almost nothing and proceeded to wail "You died?? You can't die! You couldn't die! You're here! Shinji nai!!"

Usagi was trying to calm her mother down and hold herself up at the same time. She was doing an decent job at the latter, demo the former wasn't working. It didn't take long for Mr. Tsukino to get into the mix but I'm afraid that he only made things worse. His face was the colour of a thunder cloud, not that reassuring. "You all left her alone to face that monster? You deliberately left her!"

Now, I don't think his intention was to stop his wife from being able to carry out her hysterics, demo that's what happened when he pulled his daughter away from her and tried to sit Usagi down on the couch they had been sitting on. In losing the object of her fit Mrs. Tsukino stopped freaking out and looked around for Usagi. "Come on honey, we're leaving! Even if this is true, it's obviously not safe here for our daughter. Come on Shingo!" Mr. Tsukino started to pick Usagi-chan up again but between her struggles and Shingo's "Otou-san, we can't leave yet, the stories not over." He wasn't going to get far.

"I've heard enough of this story. Some protectors! We're leaving."

"No Otou-san, we're not. Stop being so mean. Were you listening to what Luna said at all? The other Scouts had to fight those things or Usagi-chan wouldn't have been able to get to the head youma! It was her job to fight it. They did help in the end after all. You're not being fair and your making the Scouts feel guilty. Yamete."

"Shingo, I don't know when you became my second knight in shining armour but Arigato!!" Usagi had finally wriggled out of her father's grasp on the couch, as he stared in shock at Shingo, and was inching her way slowly back to Endymion-sama. "Shingo's right dad. Luna said it 'seemed like they'd all been killed', not that we had been. I made a wish on the ginzuishou just as I was passing out that we all be given a 'normal' life, so the crystal did that. It wiped out all our memories related to the Sailor Scouts, the bad guys etc. and replaced them with a year of fake memories. We didn't even know each other. Really, too all intents and purposes, I was the only one who WASN'T dead. I mean I might have been for a split second, but the other's all went a long time before me. We're fine, don't worry." She smiled reassuringly at her family and then turned around with a rather un-Princess like look of confusion on her face.

"Shingo, what's gotten into you?" I don't think I've seen anyone blush like that in a long time, and considering I'm the keeper of time, that sure says a lot.

Makoto's POV

I followed Michiru-san as she pulled Haruka-san to the kitchen. My initial goal was to continue with diner. I mean, the Tsukino's did come here to eat after all and they're going to need something before this whole thing is over. They're just too stunned right now to think about their stomachs. However, I have to admit, I had an ulterior motive. I've never heard Haruka whine about anything and I want to see what's going to happen in the kitchen. I want to be there just in case I need to protect any of the food we've already made.

The two of them went directly to the food on the stove and started to dish out some of the rice and chicken that I had already finished. It wasn't anything fancy and had only taken about 20 minutes to make so I wasn't too worried. I had time to make more of that. It was when they started toward the large chocolate cake that I hadn't even iced yet, that I started forward on my mission.

"Iie! I haven't even iced that yet and it's for your guests! Since everyone else here, except you Outers, are guests you'll have to wait! I'm not serving a half-eaten cake to the Tsukino's!"

Ami-chan's POV

I'm not sure what startled Haruka-san and Michiru-san more, the fact that an Inner Scout was reprimanding them, or that Mako-chan was coming at them with murder in her eyes while doing it. I couldn't help but giggle at the stunned look on their faces.

Mako-chan rescued her cake from under their noses and pointed imperiously at the table. "Sit, eat. You can wait for dessert and eat with the rest of us." They went, their eyes sparkling with mirth.

"Ami-chan, I think your going to have your hands full." Haruka winked at me where I stood in the kitchen doorway.

I giggled a moment and then regally flipped my hair back (which takes talent when you have short hair) and headed to the refrigerator. "Not really, I can't cook worth a darn and I learned long ago not to enter or eat without permission! I won't have any problems." I grinned saucily at Mako-chan as I pulled milk out of the fridge.

There was a comfortable silence for about the next 10 minutes as they ate, and we cooked.

"You two have done that often haven't you?"

"Nani?" Mako-chan glanced at me in confusion holding out the potato peeler.

"You two look like your dancing." My own frown of confusion deepened. Haruka-san sighed and pointed to the innocent peeler, now in my hands. "You didn't ask for that and yet, Makoto-san knew to give it to you just when you needed it. It's almost telepathic the way you two have been doing the cooking. You didn't discuss what you were going to make, but you both knew. It's kinda creepy to watch."

Michiru's POV

The two younger girls were blushing a sweet pink by now and it took a moment for them to answer. "Well I suppose we have, in a way. We've been friends for four years now and all of the Senshi have tried to help in the kitchen. Ami's the only one who's able to do it without getting in the way or destroying something. Rei is too bossy, Mina is an accident waiting to happen and Usagi-chan eats it faster then we can make it, or at least she used to." Her face clouded over slightly at the end and the two younger girls shared a pensive look.

"Goshinpainaku you two, she'll be fine, after she gets finished telling her family that is. It looks like things are going to be pretty rosy in your futures too." drawled Haruka from the other side of the table.

"Nani?" again that cute look of confusion.

"Well, it just seems to me, that you two have finally figured out how you feel." She gave them a wink that made both of them blush even more (innocent flirting, Haruka's chief pass time). "That's great!"

Ami seemed to be blushing the hardest but didn't reject Makoto-san's hand when it clasped her own.

"We're just sorry it took so long, and dying again to get it out in the open." Ami murmured.

"Dying will do that to you. That's when I finally pinned Michi-chan down. It's annoying what emotional highs will induce to you do." Haruka grimaced. She's never been a very openly emotional person (with her real emotions I mean) and that particular moment was fraught with them.

"What happened?" They slowly drifted over to the table and sat at the other end, a trade off so they could see both of us clearly I assume.

"It was after we found the Scared Cup. Haruka and I had promised each other that even if one of us died the other would continue on to finish our mission. Once it was over, I realized I couldn't let Haruka die again without at least telling her my feelings. Turns out she had the same idea. It made for a very emotionally laden evening but we've never regretted it." We were holding hands now and I have to admit, I'm a sentimentalist at heart, and it felt wonderful.

Suddenly Haruka's hand tightened over my own and her face sobered. "If you ever need to discuss anything, onegai, come to us. We have some idea what it's like. Do you realise your going to have an even harder time of it then we do?"

"Harder??? Michiru's parents disowned her! Your parents won't talk to you at all! How much worse can it get? At least we only have to tell one parent and we have a pretty good idea our friends aren't going to mind!"

"That's true Makoto-san, but you aren't going to be confused with a guy." Haruka said with a sad tone of resignation.

Hotaru's POV

I can't believe he's done such a turn around. He was such an idiot when they first got here. I've been answering all his questions while the others talked (only when he got confused of course) but I didn't realise he'd pulled such a 360.

"I just realised that your Sailor Moon, that's all." I think the blank look on Usagi's face must have been somewhat the same as mine, had he been looking at me.

"Shingo-kun" Serenity-sama was starting to sound a little concerned at this point. "You saw me transform over an hour ago, didn't you realize it then?"

"Hai, but, not really. I mean, I saw it and I believed it but I didn't know it. Oh brother, that didn't make any sense."

"Iie, Shingo, I know exactly what you mean. You knew the information, but that's entirely different from knowing it in your heart. Once your heart knew it, then so did you." Shingo flipped around and smiled a full wattage smile in my direction.

"Hai Hotaru-san, that's it!" This time when he returned his attention to his family it wasn't Serenity he was focussed on though, it was his parents.

"Otou-san, you can't just take Usagi away from this and think this it's all going to go away. It doesn't sound like it works that way. She's doing something here that is more important then you, or me, or what you order her to do. In fact, if you ordered her to have nothing to do with these people again, and I had to guess her reaction, I think she'd probably disown you."

"Shingo! Onegai, don't say things like that." Serenity-sama looked almost panicked. I don't think she even considered the fact that her parents would do something like that. Tell her not to fight hai, but have nothing to do with her friends? No way. She'd die without them.

"Is he right Usagi?" Her mother, ever the calm one in a crisis (after she gets over fainting).

"It doesn't matter because it hasn't come to that and it never will. I still want to know what's up with Shingo! Quit putting me off." Her voice held the royal inflection we had started to hear a while ago but which surprised her brother.

"Yes ma'am" he mumbled. "Well it's like this. You're my older sister, but you're also my favourite super hero, sorry guys." He smiled apologetically around at the rest of us. "I've always felt like I knew her somehow, like she was familiar. That's why I loved hearing about her/them. I looked up to her. I just realised that if I looked up to her, and she's the same person as my sister, then I guess I must look up to my sister too, at least the one that I'll get to know now that I know her secret. And Dad, isn't she a little old for you to be hauling home over your shoulder?"

I think everyone in the room wanted to hug that young boy at the same time but Serenity-sama got to him first. She was whispering in his ear and the smile that bloomed on his face told us it was definitely something good. Her father on the other hand was still too stunned to move.

"Are you sure your only 15 years old young man? When did you grow to be so wise?"

Mina's POV

The anger was gone. It seemed to have drained away like rain through a sieve. His face wasn't red or molted and his hands weren't clenched in the fists that developed the moment he saw the two of them together. In fact even his rigid posture is gone. Oh, I'm not dreaming for one moment that they're permanently gone, after all, we haven't got to the part where he breaks up with her, but for now Shingo-san appears to have done the trick.

"I don't know Otou-san, I just know I'm right. You and Okaa-san need to finish listening that's all I know. I want to find out what happened, obviously they didn't die because they're here and the others haven't even entered the story yet. I think there's a lot more to come."

"Luna, you don't think my transformation might have affected him, do ya?" giggled Usagi-chan. "I mean, that's way too deep for Shingo-kun. He's starting to sound more mature then me and that's totally out of the question!" She ruffled his hair and then gave Hotaru a wink and went and sat back down, almost slumping into Endymion-sama's lap.

"Usagi honey, you look as tired as um mm . . . that little girl. Why don't you follow her example and get some sleep. I'm sure the others can tell us the story from here. I promise, no more major outbursts, I'll keep control of your father." She got a dirty look from Tsukino-san for that remark.

"Iie, Mom. I want to be here. I'm not the only one who's tired though, from the looks of things. I think maybe you should put your Starlights to bed Kaykuu-hime. They were never reborn and they used up just as much energy as I did. I'm sure they could use the rest."

"Usa-chan we want to stay!"

"Fighter-chan, go to sleep. We'll call you before it's your turn, you won't miss the ending. You've heard this all once before anyway so this has got to be boring." She then got a sly smile on her face and added in a totally innocent tone of voice, "and you'll want all your strength for when Hope wakes up, you have idea how much trouble she can get into after a nap!"

Iukuo's POV

They don't know how active their own daughter is? Reborn? Nani, they all died again???? I know I told Usagi we'd be good from now on but this time it's me who wants answers. I know . . . ah here it is. I'll just write down all these questions on here so that if they haven't been answered by the end of the story I'll remember to ask them then.

Mina's POV

Seiya sighed and looked at Kaykuu-hime and I think that's what made her mind up. She was staring at the Starlights with a worried expression on her face that was very easy to read. It was saying something like this, 'I can't believe I missed how tired they look, I am such a horrible person.', or at least something along those lines.

"Ne Serenity, maybe a little nap wouldn't hurt us. Do you have a baby bed around here somewhere, so we can lay Hope down as well?"

"Actually we do Seiya-san. You can use Hotaru's crib, it's still up in the attic and it's still fairly new. I'll go and get it for you and meet you upstairs. (More scribbling on Iukuko's pad.) You three can take the blue room, and you other two can have the room next door, it's done in yellow." Michiru-san bowed respectfully to Serenity-sama and Endymion-sama and then excused herself.

Fighter-san stood up and then gently took her little girl from her wife's arms. When Kaykuu-hime started getting up as well Fighter-san gave her a look. "You can stay if you would like. You're probably not tired and watching us sleep will get boring after a while."

"Fighter, I'm being given the chance to watch over two of the most important people in my life, why would I turn that down?"

Fighter followed Taiki and Yaten out the door with Kaykuu-hime trailing behind with a rather feline smile on her face.

Luna's POV

I'm starting to wonder if it's something I said, there are fewer and fewer people in here all the time. Well, might as well get on with it, at this rate we're going to be here for the rest of this millennium!

"Now, as I was saying, the girls were reborn again, however, they had no memory of the last year."

"Luna . . . " Well that's one thing they've got in common, she can still interrupt with the best of them.

"Hai, Serenity-sama?"

"I think I'd like to tell the next part of the story. Onegai?"

"Of course, if you want to. Just let us know if you don't want to continue." I bowed slightly, rather hard to do as a cat since your already close to the ground, and then curled up into the divan to listen to my story being told by my Princess.

"Well, as Luna said we didn't have any memories, we didn't even remember each other. My wish had come true, but it wasn't to stay that way . . . "