'It's been centuries since I last used my voice. I'm afraid I might forget about you. Then again, I'd likely forget my own name and identity before I forget that of my only lover's. But it's been so long since... since then. You said we'd be together for all eternity. You were wrong, Michiru. So wrong.' -Sailor Uranus, Silver Millennium ---------- The Woman Your Soul Remembers Everyone does a Silver Millennium fic at some point, and this is my humble contribution. It was inspired by Saun's fic, 'Sayonara', and as an answer to the question of why Uranus is not seen floating away to be reincarnated with the others at the fall of the Silver Millennium. ---------- A scream. The sound of Kaioh Michiru's own voice woke her with a violent start. Her slight form bolted upright, her aqua hair damp and clinging to her sweaty face. Her down comforters were sprawled about the foot of her decorative bed as though she had fought off some unknown horror in her sleep. Still trying to catch her breath, the teenaged girl tried to grasp the broken fragments of quickly dispersing memories as the sketchy recollection of her dream faded into nothingness. Already, her mind couldn't remember what had frightened her so. Leaning back into the solace of her pillows, she sighed wearily. Exhaustion taking its toll on her, she relaxed as her pale skin cooled and her heart rate finally slowed to its resting beat. The chill of the early spring night drifted through the open windows of her apartment and she shuddered in response. Powerless to fight off the temptation of slumber, sleep once again claimed the cobalt eyed girl. Only this time, the vague nightmare images that threatened to plague her were held at bay by the image of a blonde haired woman. flashback Her familiar giggle on her lips, the young woman darted away from her assailant. Looking back over her shoulder, she teased the blonde that followed behind her with a knowing wink before taking off down the stone hallway, her bare feet slapping the smooth stone floor underneath her. Her partner wasn't long in catching up and the sound of her formal boots clacking on the hard surface beneath her feet quickly caught up to her partner's ears. The cobalt eyed woman hadn't expected to be faster than the wind, but the excitement of being caught by her was nonetheless intense. Strong arms captured her from behind and her knees buckled underneath her at the sensation of the other woman's breath in her ear. "Michiru..." Hearing her own name whispered hotly by her partner sent chills running down her spine. The aqua haired woman gasped as she was suddenly spun to face her partner and then gently, yet firmly pushed back into a stone wall as she was passionately kissed by the taller woman. "Haruka." Michiru's breath became her partner's own as she moaned the wind senshi's name into her mouth. The Neptunian woman's actions became bolder as her hands began to wander, drifting from Haruka's collarbone, across the swell of her small breasts, to her waist and down her thighs. The Uranian responded with a sharp gasp as the smaller woman's fingertips finally dragged sensuously along her inner thighs. As her lips found Michiru's slender neck, the senshi of the wind pinned her partner to the unforgiving wall, the coolness of its surface failing to cool the heat of their skin. The other woman shuddered as the taller woman's teeth grazed her sensitive flesh and her hands wandered slowly, yet deliberately across the smaller woman's body. The scent of the senshi of the ocean intoxicated Haruka as her hands ran up Michiru's rib cage and softly brushed against her breasts. Michiru gasped at the sensation and when she pushed herself further into Haruka's inviting body, she was pleased to find that her partner redoubled her efforts. The blonde's strong hands caressed and kneaded Michiru's ample breasts, the thin toga-like gown she wore only a scant barrier to Haruka's fingertips. The senshi of the ocean hitched a leg up around Haruka's waist as she unconsciously ground into her partner, seeking to ease the passion that raged within. The sound of graceful footfalls suddenly echoed in the hallway and the two women froze, Michiru's leg still around Haruka and the blonde's hand still firmly on Michiru's breast, their lips still locked together. Their senses reached out for the source of the intrusion and they froze even more, each holding their breath once they detected the approaching presence of their friend and ally. Knowing that they'd be seen should they move, the two stood like statues in the shadows of the dark corridor as the figure passed them by silently before reaching the end of the hallway and turning down the next. Thinking they were safe, slowly, the two let out soft giggles and gentle sighs of relief. "Get a room." The figure's abrupt voice carried boldly from the next hallway whimsically after waiting for the right moment to reveal the obvious. Haruka and Michiru blushed hotly at the voice of Setsuna. They should have known better than to try to fool the Guardian of Time. Michiru giggled. She fully intended to take her friend's advice. A sensual smile on her lips, she grabbed Haruka's hand and quickly pulled her down the hallway. They stopped at Michiru's door, the senshi of the wind fumbling with the complexities of the doorknob under the influence of her partner's seductive ministrations. Finally having opened it, she stumbled through the entryway, never separating her lips from the senshi of the ocean's own. Before she could even close the door behind them, Michiru slid Haruka's traveling coat from her shoulders. The pile of clothes thrown to the mercy of the floor grew rapidly and the partners soon found themselves sprawled across the senshi of the ocean's bed. Streaming in from the ancient vaulted windows, the gentle light of the blue orb that hung in the sky painted their skin in soft hues as the two women intimately learned each other's bodies for the first time. Michiru's back arched to meet Haruka's body as the taller woman's hands hungrily ran through her hair, across her shoulders, along her ribs, gripping her hips. Their whispered voices echoed off the bedroom's stone walls as the silken sheets, no longer cool to the touch, stuck to their sweat covered bodies. It wasn't long before Michiru's breath caught in her throat and she screamed her lover's name. / flashback 'Her name?' Michiru's cobalt eyes snapped open as a lifetime of memories flashed through her mind. The intrigue of an initial meeting with the hazel eyed woman, a growing friendship, budding love, undeniable passion, a sense of duty, and a painful and wrongful end lay just beyond the reaches of her imaginings. In the span of a second's time, the intense emotions of an entire lifetime flooded her and then suddenly disappeared as quickly as it had come. Finally jolted fully awake, Michiru sat upright in her bed. Her shaking fingers touched her lips, still feeling the phantom warmth left by the ghostly apparition of love while the vivid images of the dream she still clung to continued to grip her waking mind. She was again in a sweat, only this sweat was quite unlike the one caused by her previous nightmare. A blush tinged her cheeks as she realized the depth of her arousal. The cobalt eyed girl panicked as the memories of her dream also began to fade. She shook her head as her fingers found her temples. With disturbing clarity, she realized that the dream she had experienced and the emotions associated with it were something she wanted to hold on to, something she needed to remember. It was the most intense dream she had ever had. Almost more than a dream, it had felt so real that it had seemed a memory. Only it certainly wasn't a memory that Michiru had remembered in her entire fifteen years. Could it have been a memory of a forgotten past life? Michiru wasn't sure. She certainly hadn't recognized the alien surroundings at all. It was almost as if the location of her dream hadn't even been on Earth to begin with... But she knew she had dreamt as herself, and she was sure she had been with a woman. She could remember the tall woman's short blonde hair, captivating hazel eyes, and her caring and passionate personality. But most chillingly, she remembered the depth of love that that woman felt for her, and the love she felt in return for her as though she had felt it all her life. Perhaps even longer. Somehow, Michiru knew she had to find her. That the vision she had experienced had been some sort of sign, and that if her phantom lover actually existed in this life as she did herself, then maybe that captivating blonde haired woman was waiting for her to find her. Certainly, that might be the case. She had some kind of duty to fulfill with her... and to her. Michiru was sure of it. Only, what was that woman's name, and where had they been? Could it really have been... another life? But how could that be possible? To Michiru's dismay, the vividness of the dream slipped through her fingers like so many grains of sand. When the aqua haired girl finally surrendered to sleep again, regardless of the effort she applied to finding her dream woman a second time, her dreams were silent. ---------- A pillow flew mercilessly across her sparsely decorated apartment as a blonde haired girl thrashed violently in her sleep. Sweat gathered on Tenoh Haruka's brow as she mumbled incoherencies, her fists balled tightly in defiance. She'd had this dream, this nightmare before, but she was powerless to stop it... dream Her hazel eyes stared wildly, her body frozen in fear as she gawked at the black and red vortex that swirled in front of her. Swallowing, eating, devouring everything around her, this terror that she intuitively knew as the Silence raged with the power of a super nova. Buildings crumbled and fell into so much rubble only to be sucked into its core. Searing hot winds emanated from its center, the winds of hell itself. Inanimate objects were pulled into a hellish tornado, debris filling the air, yet her tall, slim form stood rooted to the ground as though her fear itself was heavier than gravity. And all she could do was stand and watch. An insignificant being in the midst of an unknown chaos. This dream world was a hell beyond all imagination. Yet in the depths of her heart, even as she faced this terror inside of her own mind, Haruka knew this was not a dream. And the realization that she might be seeing her own future frightened the stoic girl even more. If the images of a collapsing future weren't hellish enough, that of what she saw next was no less terrifying. An orange halo surrounded an aqua haired girl. Her hands clasped together, her eyes were squinted shut. She glowed with a power that Haruka somehow understood. She needed help. Her help. Her mysterious cobalt eyes opened and a slight smile touched her lips as she gazed at Haruka's form. Her hair billowed in a gentle breeze so unlike the winds of hell that threatened to tear her apart in the world of the Silence. The woman's beauty captivated Haruka. She felt an intangible pull to this startlingly familiar woman. Duty, yes, but there was something more, something stronger, and the emotions of the two combined were all too frightening. The woman's knowing gaze confirmed Haruka's suspicion that they shared more than just allegiance to their unnamed mission. Haruka wanted to run. Run from the promise of battle, run from a dying future, run from the woman who stood before her. Yet she couldn't take her eyes off her exquisite form. Intuitively, she knew the woman's name was Neptune, though she had never learned such information from her dreams. She could have been an angel were it not for the horrible duty that lay hidden behind her cobalt eyes. "The Silence is approaching." Haruka frowned. Neptune's voice was a siren's whose beauty was betrayed by the promise of obligation. This siren wanted to pull her into this hopeless world, work with her in this hell, stop this Armageddon from its approach. "We have to find the Messiah quickly. Only you and I can do this." Haruka's frown became a grimace as the desperation and pleading in the woman's voice squeezed her soul like a vice, as though the emotions that carried in her mournful tone somehow transcended the convoluted duty heralded by the dream world. Haruka shook her head in defiance. She wasn't good enough for this strangely familiar woman. She would let her down, she knew she would, as if she had done so once already lifetimes ago. Somehow Haruka inexplicably felt that she couldn't live up to Neptune's expectations. She wanted nothing to do with this woman. She wasn't a warrior. She didn't have the ability to save the world from impending destruction, and furthermore, she didn't want the duty that entailed. She was powerless to stop this possible future and she was powerless to ease the strange loneliness in that familiar woman's eyes. Somehow, Haruka felt that she couldn't be the person the woman of her dream wanted her to be. That something, some tragedy, had changed who she was meant to be for her. And it was overwhelming. A scream tore through her throat in a desperate effort to push the image of the cobalt eyed woman out of her mind. /dream Her voice echoed in her ears as Haruka sat up, relieved to be awake and out of the clutches of that terrible reoccurring nightmare. "Nightmare." She spat the word, willing it to be true. But somehow, she knew it was more than that, that the visions were more than just dreams. Perhaps she was seeing the future... A chill ran down her spine as, unsolicited, the image of the aqua haired woman's elegance returned to her mind. As though her figure was burned into her retina, Haruka couldn't shake the image of beauty. More so now that wakefulness had veiled the truths of her dream, Haruka didn't know exactly why she was so scared of the unnamed woman, why every fiber of her being wanted to both run from her and stand by her side for all eternity at the same time. But the immense devastation that accompanied the very thought of the aqua haired woman choked her. She had never in her life even seen her before, yet she was familiar to Haruka's very soul, bringing both sensations of peace and comfort, along with fear and loathing at her very image. As her dream faded into vague senses, shapes and forgotten words, all Haruka knew was that somewhere, something had gone wrong. The clock read three in the morning, but regardless of the time, the blonde haired girl picked up her running shoes and headed for the door. ---------- Knowing garnet eyes slowly faded from the mortal plane as the guardian of time retreated from her watch over the two destined girls. Slowly, her consciousness returned to her body that waited at her post at the Time Gate. She sighed at her familiar surroundings. She could have been standing there staring at that door for hours or eons, it wouldn't have felt any longer. Such was the nature of time when one existed outside of its bounds. The mists of time surrounded the majestic sapphire haired woman that was Sailor Pluto, her resigned expression tightening as she focused on the gray film that covered the portal to veil its contents. On its other side, where moments ago was revealed the apartments of Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru, now lay the ruins of what was once the Moon Palace after the fall of the Silver Millennium almost a thousand years past. With the ability to see any point in time, past, present, or future, Sailor Pluto found that, always, her memories led her back to this lonely and forsaken place. Lonely. She hadn't known what it was to be truly lonely until her Queen had forced her to know friendship. Sometimes, she wondered if her duty would have been easier had she never been granted those three short years on the mortal plane at all during the Silver Millennium. Those years that she had made the best of friends had made her solitary duty that much more unbearable. But no, Pluto could never regret the time she spent with her allies, Haruka and Michiru, Uranus and Neptune. Even for as painful as the loss of their friendship was, they had taught her much, and she was forever grateful to them and for them. Before she had met the senshi of the wind and the senshi of the ocean, during her many ages of service to her Queen, Pluto had been even more withdrawn and aloof, always struggling with mortal situations due to a lack of understanding the complexities of human interactions. A few millennia at the Time Gate could do that to a person. But those two women had changed her. And now, in the present, with the looming threat of a battle that required the skill of the outer senshi to join the already awakened inners, Pluto was eager to reawaken her age old friends. Even though the rebirth of their plight was ordained by duty, the rebirth of their love was ordained by destiny, and it would still be a relief to be reunited with those she loved. Pluto was lonely, yes. But she knew that the pain and loneliness that the reincarnated Haruka and Michiru felt without each other was even greater. For they had once found love in each other and without the other half of their souls, surely their hearts mourned for the presence of the other. They had once found love, and ultimately, love was greater than any other binding force. Their destiny and duty required Neptune and Uranus to fight along side each other, but it was love that kept their human personalities together, and Pluto wanted nothing more than to join them together again, not only for the necessity of their senshi powers, but for their own souls. But she knew that it would be more difficult this time around. The portal before the tall woman once again came to life, erasing the silent catastrophe that had previously been the ruins of the Moon Palace and once again it returned to the image of her two reincarnated friends. Michiru, with the destiny of the ocean senshi, tossed and turned in a light, dreamless sleep, a murmur of an unrecognized name on her lips. The empathic young woman, so similar to her persona of the Silver Millennium, doubtlessly pined for her yet unknown lover. Meanwhile, Haruka, with the destiny of the wind senshi, ran aimlessly down the darkened streets of Tokyo, a perpetual scowl marring her features. Scared, hesitant, and bearing little resemblance to her original incarnation, she saw everything through a smoked lens warped and distorted from a terrible tragedy that should never have occurred at the fall of the Silver Millennium. Pluto sighed. Fate had returned their souls to the Earth as their Queen had long ago foretold, but how would they ever find each other again when destiny had corrupted one of them so terribly? The Guardian of Time herself could almost curse the fates for what they had done. "Michiru." Pluto whispered sadly, a hint of hopelessness lacing her ageless voice. "Will you even recognize Haruka when you see her again for the first time? I fear she is no longer the woman your soul remembers." ---------- Author's Notes: Special thanks to my KS and beta, YoukaiMusashi. She's put up with my fics since Corporate Deception: Fate of Her Land... thanks girl! As stated earlier, this fic is my contribution to the 'What Happened at the end of the Silver Millennium' theory. It was inspired by Saun's fic, 'Sayonara', and as an answer to the question of why Uranus is not seen floating away to be reincarnated with the others at the fall of the Silver Millennium. It is also my first Sailor Moon fic. Right now, the going is slow as backgrounds are revealed, but stick with me, as plot and action will speed up soon. I'm aiming for about ten chapters to top this story off and most of it is ready to go. Generally my chapters are longer than this one, but this new writing style has been a refreshing change for me. Constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and all reviews are more than welcome. My knowledge of all things Sailor Moon is admittedly not perfect, and this is a creation of my own, so I'm sure there will be inconsistencies with the anime and the manga. ---------- Preview, Chapter 2: The aqua haired woman played with her partner's feathery blonde bangs thoughtfully. "Haruka?" She asked, loosing herself in her lover's deep gaze. "Hmm?" The Uranian replied lazily, her arm underneath Michiru's waist tightening slightly around her slender form. "We'll always be together, won't we?" Michiru asked, a blush coloring her cheeks at such an uncharacteristic question.
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