Michiru tossed and turned, lost in a nightmare she was desperate to escape. Haruka shook the smaller woman, desperate to pull her out of the dream before she accidentally hurt herself. Michiru's thrashing and squirming slowed as her sapphire eyes slowly opened. Her swollen belly was pressed against Haruka's stomach, and the green-eyed senshi could feel their tiny daughter kicking, upset by her mother's dreams. Michiru stifled a sob as she dove deeper into her wife's arm, tears streaking her cheeks. "Ruka . . ." "What is it, Michi? What did you dream? Why did it upset the baby so much?" "I saw your death, Ruka," she whispered, trembling. "And she saw hers." "What?! Michiru!" "Not in this time, in the past. I was remembering your death from the Silver Millennium. Ruka, what if you die here, before she's born? I can't raise her alone." The Senshi of Uranus smiled and rubbed her hands along Michiru's back. "I'm not going to leave you, Michiru. I love you too much for that. What do you mean about our baby's past life? Who was she?" Michiru shook her head, wiping her tears away. "I really shouldn't tell you, Ruka. It's so very weird. It'll just make you act strange. You're going to laugh when I say it because you won't believe me, then you're going to say 'Kami-sama!' when it sinks in." Haruka raised an eyebrow, glad that her wife was smiling. "I promise I won't laugh." Michiru took a deep breath, sitting up and placing one hand on her swollen belly, letting the sheet pool around her. Haruka remained lying on her side, eyes trained on her wife in the moonlight. "Our daughter's soul once belonged to a Sailor Uranus in the Silver Millennium." "Which one, Michiru?" "One of the later ones. Her daughter reigned for less than a month before she died." "Who was . . ." Haruka trailed off, and she chuckled. "You're not serious." "See, I knew you would laugh." Michiru was still perfectly serious. "No, because that would mean . . . Michiru, the only Uranian Queen to rule for less than a month was me." Michiru nodded. "Kami-sama! That can't be my mother!" "Told you so." Michiru nodded. "She showed me, Ruka. This baby was once Kazeko. You have become your mother's mother." She giggled, the dark dreams forgotten. "That is so weird, Ruka." "I'll say." Haruka reached out and rested a hand on her wife's belly. "I never really knew her, Michi. Setsuna-san and Ailan-san did, but I never met her. When I entered the world, she left it. I caught a glimpse of her spirit but I always wondered what kind of woman she was. Now I can know. The gods have given us a second chance. Do you think she'll remember any of the Silver Millennium?" "Probably a little, but I think we should have Setsuna block those memories." "Michiru! You remember how much we fought with her to get our memories back! I don't want to put my baby through that!" "And I don't want her to live knowing that she birthed you more than a thousand years ago!" Michiru clenched her fists, knowing that her sudden outburst had startled her wife. "I want her to have a normal life, Ruka, as normal a life as the daughter of two senshi can have. Knowing that she was a queen of another planet who died birthing one of her mothers . . . she would never be normal." "Michiru, she might fell incomplete without those memories. And what about when we give her memories back?" "She's not going to be a senshi; she won't need those memories. I know that this is the last thing you want, especially after Setsuna did it to us, but I know why she did what she did. It wasn't to protect herself, and it wasn't to protect her secret. It was for us. She wanted to give us normal lives, or at least normal childhoods. Please, Ruka, think about it." Haruka stood up and pulled on her robe, staring out the window. "You know how much I love you, Michiru, and you know that I want to agree with you, but I know, deep down, that it would be wrong to take a piece of her away. She died so that I could live, sacrificing her own love for my future. She deserves to be whole." "I understand," Michiru whispered, lying back down. Curling around her stomach, she glanced at her wife. "Are . . . are you coming back to bed?" "No. I think I'll just stand here for a while." Michiru nodded and turned over, her body shaking with her silent sobs. Haruka clenched her fists, feeling her wife's pain and her daughter's confusion, but she couldn't bring herself to return to the bed. She placed her palm on the window, standing there, all of her memories of the Silver Millennium flying through her mind. Long after Michiru cried herself to sleep, long after the moon set, Haruka stood there, eyes fastened on the tiny dim dot in the sky she recognized as Uranus. "I never meant to make her cry," she whispered, tears on her own cheeks. "Mother, what should I do?" *~*~*~*~*~*~* "Setsuna, come to bed." The green-haired woman joined her lover, sighing as the smaller woman curled into her arms. She remembered that safe feeling from the Silver Millennium. "Ailan, I was thinking about their daughter. Who do you think she is?" "What do you mean?" "I mean, she has to have a powerful soul as a daughter of two senshi. Usagi does. Do you think her soul is from one of the queens? One of our old friends?" Ailan lifted her head. "Why, all of a sudden? And what does it matter?" "If it's someone from the Silver Millennium, won't she remember?" "Oh." Ailan rested her head on Setsuna's chest, tracing the flower patterns on her lover's silk bed dress with one finger. "You're afraid you'll have to block her memories." "With the senshi I knew. I could see their power in the mirror from the Time Gate. But this girl is different. I'll have to return to the Mists when she is born and check to see if she comes from the Silver Millennium." "I don't see the problem with letting her remember, if she does come from back then. I was born knowing my past, and . . . well, I did have trouble trying to find you. I never had any sort of serious relationship and I had problems with friends, and I always felt like I was a thousand years old. Wow. Maybe you should . . ." "It doesn't matter unless she is reborn from the Silver Millennium, and then it will only matter if Haruka and Michiru ask me to. We have a couple of weeks left to think about it, anyway." The Senshi of Time smiled and caressed Ailan's cheek. "Now, what's bothering you?" "I was just remembering our time in the Silver Millennium. Setsuna, I know we never should have concocted that fake king plan, and I know that we never should have allowed the pregnancy, but the truth of the matter is that you and I were married for quite a while. I miss being your wife. Here it's not against the law for you and me . . . Setsu-chan, what's the matter?" Setsuna slipped out of bed when her lover started talking about their time together in the Silver Millennium, leaning against the wall, panic clouding her ruby eyes. "I . . . I can't, Serenity. I love you, gods know I do, but I can't marry you again. I can't go through the pain of losing you again." "Marrying me won't make you love me more." "No, but it will make me rely on you again. Ailan, When we were married . . . it was like I was in heaven. I've been there, it's a nice place, and I know that living with you was that wonderful. I want it again. I want it more than anything I've ever wanted, but I can't." "Setsuna, there's nothing to say that you won't die before I do." "Ailan, my parents are gods. I won't ever die, and even if I do, I'll join my mother and father. I will never see you again." "Setsuna, I was touched by a god, by Eurynome. I remember seeing her the day I was born. She released me from Hades's domain so I could wield her crystal and save this planet again. When I die, I believe that I'll be with you." "I can't! Never again." Ailan nodded, knowing that something else was bothering Setsuna. "Okay, love. Pretend I never brought this up, okay? I love you, and that's enough. Please, come back to bed." Setsuna grabbed her robe and opened the glass door to the porch. "Let me get some air first, Ailan. I'll be back." Setsuna closed the door behind her, leaning against the railing as she stared at the stars. There were so many. "I wonder how many of them have planets and senshi," she murmured. "Do any of you have this problem? Did any of you illegally marry the only woman you have ever loved? Was she reborn? Will she die again? Eurynome, I wish you had never given her back to me. It's almost worse, having her here, than it was to live centuries without her. She was right. I never should have asked her to stay. I wish she had gone away like she wanted to do. I wish we really could be together the way she wants. I wish I wasn't so very scared." "Scared, daughter? Of what?" Hades appeared by her side, also leaning on the balcony, his body and his voice toned down to mortal proportions. He stared at the stars, his eyes a rich mahogany color as he let his entire godly glamour fall away. "What frightens you, Se?" "She does, Father. I do. How could I have let myself fall in love with my queen? I was so stupid. I knew that I was a god, I knew that no one could ever live as long as I will, but I still followed her onto the balcony that night." An image appeared in front of the pair, an image of a very beautiful silver haired princess in a lavender dress smiling at a younger Setsuna, her long green hair pulled into an intricate braid and piled on top of her head, her black dress sparkling in the light of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. She smiled as the princess held out her hand, following her onto the balcony of the great palace, where they both stared out at the stars. "She was so very beautiful that night." "She looks like your mother did the day I first glimpsed her. Oh, not the hair," Hades clarified, "but that childlike innocence. She was kneeling in a field, painting the flowers, wearing a light purple dress that very much resembles that one. She had flowers in her hair, and pretty ribbons. She was glowing with life and love and naïveté, and I wanted her so badly." Setsuna smiled. "Both of us broke the law, you know. You kidnapped Mother and I married her, pretending to be a man. My mortal mother would have turned in her grave if she ever found out. But that night, there was no Moon Kingdom, no laws, no restrictions, no senshi. When she asked me to her room, I almost fainted. When she kissed me . . ." Setsuna smiled, eyes half-closed, a blissful expression on her face. "When she kissed me I thought I was on Olympus again." "Really? You know, I don't think my brother would mind if you brought Ailan to Olympus once in a while. Since Persephone asked Demeter to forgive me, you and I are no longer banned from Zeus's table and land." "To the godly plane? Hades! You might be allowed to leave the underworld again, and I might be allowed to cross the boundary, but Ailan would never be permitted on Olympus! Only gods are allowed there." "So are Avatars and demi-gods. Zeus revised the rules during your millennium in that blasted Time Gate. In any case, Ailan is one of us. She told you in there that she remembers Eurynome freeing her from my domain. The only beings that can leave are those of god stock. She was Touched. Your senshi friends were born with their crystals, and that makes them more than Avatars, immune to mortal restrictions and laws. And now Ailan is free, too." "Really? I don't have to worry about losing her?" Hades smiled and embraced his daughter. "No, Se. She'll never leave you. Your mother would never allow it, in any case. She's asleep already. In the morning, you two should talk." "Thank you, Father." Setsuna hugged the God of Death and kissed his cheek. "I miss you guys sometimes." "I know. Come for a visit sometimes, okay? Oh, and don't tell anyone about this, especially your mother. I have a reputation to protect." "Okay," Se smiled. Hades vanished, and she turned back to the scene playing out in the air before her. Setsuna pulled away from young Serenity, slowly leading her to the bed, a gentle and excited look on both women's faces. Passion and love. She missed being young. "Maybe I'm just afraid to fall in love, really fall in love," she whispered to herself. "I'll think about it, Ailan. After all, the past doesn't repeat itself." She knew the lie for what it was, but Setsuna ignored the apprehension she felt. The past didn't always repeat itself. Ailan was not doomed to die.
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