Setsuna sat quietly on her bed, hands clasped in her lap and eyes closed. She had taken off her suit and slipped into the simple white knee-length silky dress she wore to bed, the thought of the younger senshi halting her preparations for bed. Was it right to deny the younger senshi their memories? They had lives and loves back in the Silver Millennium, loves they sacrificed themselves for, loves they hoped to be with in their next lives. Did she have the right to keep them from remembering that? Ailan knocked on her door and entered the oldest senshi's room, having sensed her turmoil three rooms away in the guest room. "Setsu-chan?" "Come in, Ailan. I was just thinking." Ailan sat beside Setsuna on her large bed, resting her head on the taller woman's bare shoulder. Ailan had changed out of the exquisite dress Setsuna had given her and into one of Haruka's long white dress shirts. It was practically a dress on her, reaching nearly to her knees, and Setsuna realized just how much like the silver haired woman was like her blonde daughter. All of Haruka's shirts were too big for Usagi. Usagi looked and acted like the ancient queen. "But not like me." "Who? Usagi?" Setsuna nodded, wrapping one arm around Ailan's waist as they leaned against the headboard of her bead. "She's nothing like me." "Yes she is. On the outside she may look like me, and she may be a little flighty and a bit of a klutz now and then, but inside, her heart, is you. Do you remember leaving the Moon? You left because you loved our daughter so much that nothing else mattered. I couldn't have ever done that." "Serenity—" "Setsuna, listen. Her heart, her strength, her capacity for love, is from you. I expected her to look like me, all daughters of the Moon Kingdom look similar. But when she gets determined, she looks like you. When she smiles kindly at her enemies or her friends, she looks like you. When she smiles that mysterious little smile because she knows everything will turn out alright, that's all you. I don't have your strength, Love, but she does." "Thank you," Setsuna whispered. "How long have you been watching her?" "A long, long time." She closed her lavender eyes, sighing softly. "Would you . . . would you have even noticed me if I wasn't the Moon Princess?" Setsuna laughed, kissing Ailan's forehead before answering. "I didn't even know who you were when I first saw you. It was so long ago, there was a party on Jupiter and you were wearing a silky pink dress covered in flowers. It moved with the slightest breeze. I had no idea who you were, but I fell for you in an instant. I wasn't even Sailor Pluto yet. It was years before the ball on the Moon where we first spoke, and I wasn't even going to speak to you once I learned that you were the princess. I knew we had no chance, but I was determined to meet you." "Good thing for Usagi you found your courage." Ailan leaned up and kissed Setsuna gently. "And good thing for me, too." "No matter how little time we had together back then, I never regretted my choice." "Then, since I'm only going to be here for a little while, could we . . . could you . . . could we be in love again? Just for now?" Setsuna smiled at her partner, turning to face the silver-haired woman. "I have never stopped loving you," she whispered. "I never will." "I wish you could, Setsu-chan. You deserve to be happy with someone who can stay. You've been alone for centuries and I don't want you to be alone any more." "I'm not with you here," Setsuna whispered. "Setsuna! I'm not going to be here forever and you need to find someone to love, someone who can be by your side." "I've loved a queen; who else could ever compare?" Ailan turned away, tears in her eyes, and Setsuna caught her chin, turning the woman back. "Look, I have been alone since the Silver Millennium. Alone. I had so many chances, but I was never tempted. Ever since I first saw you at the party on Mokusei, no one has ever come near my heart. I loved you, I love you, and I will always love you. Only you. No matter what you say, I could never give my heart to another because it no longer belongs to me. I gave it to you and I don't want it back." Ailan wiped her tears away. "That was beautiful," she whispered. "I wish I was good enough for you; I wish I could be here forever, like you deserve." She placed her fingers over Setsuna's lips, knowing her beloved's thoughts. "You don't have to say anything. Back in the Silver Millennium, if I could have had just one wish, one wish in the whole world, I would have asked for you. I would have been a servant on Pluto or a commoner on the Moon, so long as my position didn't keep me away from you. Life isn't fair for us, for two old queens, but we have some time, at least. I never thought we'd have this much." "I don't regret what little time we have." Ailan's sad purple eyes looked up at Setsuna, and the green-haired woman kissed her, aching to be with her one and only lover once more. For the first time in her long guardianship as Sailor Pluto, Setsuna didn't care about the consequences—she was going to make love to Ailan. *~*~*~*~*~*~* Haruka pushed Michiru onto their bed, their locked lips pulling her, too. They had made love before and they had shared a bed for years, but tonight was different. They were married now, they had an eternity to spend together, and no one would ever again question their devotion to each other. Besides, the Inner Senshi had forced them to sleep in different rooms for the past week to prepare for their wedding, and Haruka was sick and tired of sleeping alone as a bachelor on Makoto's couch. She wanted to show Michiru how much she had missed her. She could feel the slight woman wiggling slightly to get into position, and she gasped into Michiru's mouth as her lover's hands found their target. Haruka suddenly realized that she wanted to give Michiru something more. She knew that the aqua-haired woman had a wish so deep in her soul that she could never tell her lover, and Haruka wanted nothing more than to find a way to grant it. They were married now and there was something that her wife deserved. And she . . . almost . . . remembered how to grant that wish. Haruka felt the power of her planet run through her in a much more intimate way than when she blasted enemies as Sailor Uranus, and she felt something inside her take that power and channel it, altering and refining as she sensed an answering surge of energy from Michiru. The power left her and arrowed toward Michiru, wrapping around the smaller woman and slipping inside her, escaping from Haruka's grasp. The two women gasped, neither sure what had happened, as energy exploded through the room. Haruka collapsed, panting, Michiru trapped beneath her, as the light and the sudden burst of exquisite pleasure faded. "Michi?" "What was that, Ruka?" Her wife's voice was soft and trembling, very uncharacteristic for the senshi of the seas. "I don't know what that light was, but the rest was incredible." Michiru snorted as Haruka rolled to one side and pulled the smaller woman into her arms. "Are you okay?" Michiru nodded, resting her head on Haruka's breast, letting her wife's steadying heartbeat calm her. "I think so. I feel a little drained, and I'd like to know what that light show was. I didn't know we could do anything like that with our powers." "I don't know about you, but I, for one, was not in control. It's like Uranus took over and just used my body as a vessel to do what she wanted to." "I know. I tried to stop, to pull away, but I couldn't. It was incredible, the most incredible experience in my life, but I wasn't in the driver's seat." She smiled. "It seems so strange for me to be the one talking about cars." Haruka chose to ignore that comment as she moved into a more comfortable position and readjusted her arms around her wife, pulling the blanket up higher. "It almost seemed—I don't know—familiar, somehow." "I know . . . I felt . . . Neptune remembers something like this before, and she was a little . . . she is worried. This doesn't make any sense, and she won't tell me." "It makes sense," Haruka whispered, her breathing slowing. "I'm so tired, Michi . . ." "Me, too, Ruka. I think, after today, we deserve some rest." She closed her eyes, and both women were asleep moments later. *~*~*~*~*~*~* Setsuna gasped as she shot out of bed, leaning against the window to let her blood stop pounding in her ears. Realizing that she was naked, Setsuna slipped her robe on and sank to the floor, glancing up to make sure her shock did not wake her lover. The green-haired senshi glanced at her hands, unable to comprehend the newest consequences of her choice so long ago. She had vowed never to let the senshi remember, to never let them relive that pain, but now the Outers who had defied everything to be together were testing that vow. They had tried to combine their powers again! It was forbidden! There was a seal on the planets to keep the incident with Helios from happening again, but it must have eroded over the centuries. Pluto wondered if her power was fading—the seal should still be strong. The planets knew better than to combine their powers and the senshi should, too! How could they know, she asked herself bitingly, if they remember nothing of their pasts? They'll keep doing it again and again, and you can't restore that damn seal if the senshi are alive and drawing power from their planets! One day they'll succeed and Michiru will get pregnant. Again. You cannot allow that a second time. Setsuna snorted at her inner voice. As if I allowed it the first time! Anyway, how do I stop it? How do I prevent the conception of another child of two senshi? Usagi and Helios must remain unique, but Haruka and Michiru love each other too much to stop willingly, and they don't remember how to control their planets. Then there is only one choice. Return their memories. Before she had time to convince herself to stop or find another way to achieve her goal, Setsuna summoned the Time Staff to her side and pulled her Garnet Orb into her hands. Closing her ruby eyes, Setsuna wrapped her fingers around the smooth orb, her talisman. It warmed to her touch, and she smiled as its radiant energy filled her strong frame. There was no confusion, no question of her true path when she held the orb, and it took a moment to remind her that she had not released its powers in years. Life made perfect sense when she held the orb, and she knew that her choice was the right one. Focusing that power, Setsuna reached into the past, into the last glorious days of the Silver Millennium. "Let them remember," she whispered, wind filling her room and whispering secrets of time that only she knew. "Nine lonely planets, one mother star, a lifetime ago they knew the truth. Let them now know what they did, let them see that truth once more. Let them remember the Silver Millennium."
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