Rei was lost in her dreams. She was living her former life over again in them. "From Mars, eh?" Minako examined the girl, making sure to take in every part of her. She was about Minako's age, maybe a few months younger. For being Martian, she had a rather petite build, and she was quite attractive. Minako was taken aback; as a child growing up on Venus, all of the stories she'd been told about the Martians made them out to seem barbaric, and to look like monsters. This girl however, looked nothing like a monster. Minako found herself very interested in getting to know her, and perhaps establishing a friendship. "No. I can't start thinking about friendships yet. This girl, as of now, is competition. Until the leader is chosen, I will do my best to keep my distance from her," Minako thought to herself. "Yes," Rei answered. "I'm from Mars." "Well, I'm from Venus," the blonde-haired girl declared proudly. "It's the planet of love and beauty, not to mention, wealth!" Rei remained silent. Minako crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. That's when Rei's mind quickly flashed to another encounter with Minako, not too long after the first memory. "I'm going to be the leader," Minako spoke out into the big empty sparring room. Ami, Makoto, and Rei looked over at her. Rei appeared especially agitated. "What makes you so sure that you will become leader? From what I've heard, besides the Mercury girl, you've had the least combat experience out of all of us." Minako turned her head to look at the Martian, her blonde hair swaying slightly. "It's not all about combat experience, you know. You have to be able to strategize-" she began counting on her fingers. "-Be able to remain calm in a hostile situation, be physically enabled, be willing to risk your life for the Princess, no matter what, and you have to be smart." Rei sighed as if she was bored. "Good job, you listened to what Luna told all of us. What you're saying is nothing new." Minako half-laughed. "You must not have been listening to her. I didn't mention one of the qualities she listed. Do you remember which one that was?" Rei furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip as she went over the list her mind. Yes, there was one missing! She couldn't seem to recall what it was, even though it was pretty simple, and the list was considerably short. "'You must have excellent social skills so that you can communicate with others freely'." It was the first time any of them had heard the girl from Mercury's voice. Up until then, she hadn't spoken a word. Minako nodded. "That doesn't seem to be your expertise, Mars. It is, however, mine. Communicating with people has always been my specialty." "That still doesn't proclaim you leader, Minako. We all have just a good as chance as you, with or without great 'social skills'," The Princess of Jupiter, Makoto, chimed in. "I'm with the Princess of Mars on this one. I think combat experience is essential." Minako walked over to Rei, her eyes serious and her mouth in a firm line. Rei looked back at the girl, mirroring the same look. "We shall see." Rei tossed in her sleep. She wanted to wake up, but she couldn't. Her memories wouldn't let her—Mars wouldn't let her. The two princesses panted heavily, both either burned or bleeding severely. "Give it up," Sailor Venus got out in-between breaths. "I've won, Mars." Sailor Mars swallowed and then allowed another gasping breath to escape her lips. "N-no. I...I'm the better soldier. I deserve to be leader! Not you...not...you. You...no experience...I'm...better...senshi." With that, Mars collapsed into Venus' arms. Venus readily caught her, smiling weakly as she too fell onto the ground. She looked down at Mars' sleeping form resting on her stomach, feeling guilty for all of the cuts, gashes, and slices that could scar from this 'Battle to the Death'; or rather, 'Battle of the Inner Planets' to determine who would lead the senshi. A battle to the death was what it had become. The last thing she heard before she passed out were medics rushing over to the two teens. Rei awoke the next morning-was it the next morning?- to see a sleeping figure at her bedside. At first her vision was hazy, and it took her a few seconds to get used to the severe light in the room. She blinked her eyes several times and rubbed them violently until her normal vision returned. The figure, which was kneeling on the floor, appeared to have long blonde hair that was a shade darker than Princess Serenity's. The only other person she knew with blonde hair was— "Oh, Mars." Minako picked her head up from Rei's hospital bed. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth as she yawned and flicked her other hand to crack her wrist. "It's about time you woke up." Rei struggled to push herself up, and she soon realized why it was such a struggle. She fell back onto the pillow and examined her cast-clad arm. She tried to move her fingers the slightest bit, but it hurt too much to do so. She grunted and let her arm drop back onto the bed, momentarily forgetting due to her aggravation that she was grunting because of her injured arm. Minako chuckled at her. "Here, I'll help you." As she tried to reach behind Rei, Rei pushed her away. "I don't need anyone's help. Especially yours." Minako threw her arms up in defeat and headed for the door. "I try being kind and compassionate and this is what I get? Whatever, I'm out of here," she mumbled to herself. "Venus, wait!" The Venusian Princess let go of the door knob but didn't bother to look at the person calling her. "What?" Rei looked at the flower pattern on the blanket covering her. She began tracing the outline of it with her index finger. "Why were you... How come...you-" "Why was I waiting at your bedside?" Minako turned her head so that she could see the dark-haired girl out of the corner of her eye. "Yes." Rei looked up. "Why were you?" Minako shrugged. "I thought it was my duty as leader to watch over you and make sure that you woke up alright. You were...very badly injured." She felt a pang of guilt stab her in the stomach. She recalled when the doctors told her the senshi of fire might not wake up for a whole year, and that she was lucky to get a way from their battle with her life. Minako vowed from that day on, after sparring practices and guard duty, she'd remain by Rei's bedside until she woke from her coma. There would be no playtime for the Venus native. Lucky, the 'coma' was only a concussion, and it'd only lasted a mere week. Doctors always wanted to make everything seem hopeless, she was convinced. "...But now that I've been selected as leader, I think we should put all of this behind us. It's time that we start working as comrades. Got that?" "You were selected as leader?" Rei scoffed and attempted to cross her arms, which didn't go over too well. "Very well, then. I'll accept you as my leader, but not as my friend." Minako smirked. "Right." Rei awoke suddenly, sweat dripping down her temples. She sat up, viewing her surroundings and the strange bed she was lying in. She looked down at her clothes, and that's when it hit her. She was in Minako's hotel room. "That's right," she spoke out loud. "The hot tub--I passed out in there. The past life memories, my dreams... They're finally coming back to me." She wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "It seems things weren't too different from how they were 8 years ago. I'm not sure if that's good or bad." She sighed and shook her head. At least her headache was gone for the time being. It seemed the past life just wanted to pump a few memories into her brain that night. But, why were they all semi-negative regarding she and Minako? Shouldn't they be positive, even in the slightest? She hoped, no prayed to Kami-sama that if Mars wanted to show her more memories, that they'd lighten up, because right now, she was totally unsure of how she and Minako ever came to being best friends. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Are you sure you don't want me to drop her off at the temple? She might become upset if she wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings," Ami said. Minako shook her head. "Don't worry. I'm sure she'll be fine. She might want to talk after she wakes up, and I think I'd be the best person for her to talk to." Ami smiled and nodded. "Goodnight then." The two exchanged hugs before the prestigious doctor left the hotel and headed home. Minako pulled a good size of cash out of her jean pocket and handed it to the hotel clerk standing at the entrance. He wasn't exactly sure how to respond towards the generous donation, so he bowed repeatedly, sputtering out his thanks over and over again. The dark-haired pop-idol bowed as well and flashed him a grateful smile before saying goodnight and entering the elevator another hotel clerk was holding for her. "You can remain down here, I don't need any assistance. Goodnight." Minako pulled out some more money and handed it over to the reddening man. She pushed the button for the fifth floor and leant against the golden colored wall, letting out a tired sigh. "What do you think she's remembered?" The white plushy cat in her arms, Artemis, asked. Minako closed her eyes. "I don't know. Hopefully the good times everyone had on the moon." "Do you remember the first memory you regained all those years ago?" A small smile graced Minako's lips. "Hai. It was when I met Princess Serenity for the first time. She was babbling on about how she and I were going to become best friends and have slumber parties. As I recall, she was into karaoke very much then, too." She opened her eyes to see what floor they were on. The third. "She still hated singing back then as well. I have no idea why. She has an amazing voice." "Some people aren't into sharing their talents with the world like you are, Minako. Rei comes off as self-conscious, even though it plays off of her confidence. I think she has to push herself to be confident sometimes," Artemis stated. "Mars was the same way." The shiny elevator doors opened and Minako walked out. "I find it endearing. Even though we're both two different grown women, we still haven't grown out of our senshi traits." Artemis rolled his eyes. "Don't I know it..." Minako slipped her key card into the slot and opened the door to her room when the red light turned green. She shut the door behind herself, and noticed how the room was eerily quiet. She gulped and set Artemis on the ground. She took a slow walk around the corner, undoubtedly nervous about her former comrade laying on the bed. To her surprise, Rei was sitting up-right in the bed, her legs tucked under her backside. "Mars?" Minako called out. Artemis waddled closely behind her. Rei clenched her fists together and looked up at the singer. Minako expected to see anger on the girl's face, maybe even resentment... But no, she was wrong. There was nothing more than sadness. "Please, Minako... Call me Rei, or even that silly nickname Reiko... Just not Mars," she said. Minako wasn't sure if that was normal Rei, or if that was fragile Rei, who'd just remembered something unpleasant about her past self. "Mm. How are you feeling?" She took a seat on the edge of the bed. The dark-haired priestess shook her head. "I'm not even sure how I feel right now. I'm so confused, and I-I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be happy I'm remembering these things or angry that these memories arrived so late. I thought I'd escaped them, but I guess not. They haven't showed me much besides-" Rei cut herself off, suddenly realizing something. Minako felt that familiar pitter-patter in her chest, that unbearable fear which she wasn't particularly used to. The only time she felt this way was when she was around Rei. "So that's what Mars is doing." Minako bit her lip and looked away from her friend. "Mars wants me to realize that she's always going to be a part of me, and that I'll never escape her. I think...that's what these memories mean," Rei explained. The pop-idol shot her eyes up to Rei's. "It's my fault for building myself up to think she dreamt of memories about the two of us. I knew there was always a chance she'd dream about something else, but... I still feel like crap." "Tell me, Minako," Rei began, staring intensely into her brown-haired companion's eyes. "Is that...our destinies? To evolve back to our former selves? Are we ever going to live as anyone besides the Princesses of the inner planets? Will Mamoru become Endymion?" Rei's eyebrows furrowed. She held the flower-patterned comforter firmly in both of her hands. "Will Usagi become... Will she become her past self?" Minako's eyes wandered to the ground. She blinked several times before answering. Rei impatiently waited for a response. She knew that Minako's agonizing long silence meant the worst. "Usagi will, in some ways, revert back to being the princess." Rei slammed her fists onto her knees. She tightened her teeth together and let out a stifled growl. "But she can't!" she exclaimed. "She can't! I don't care if I revert back into Mars, but Usagi CANNOT go back to being that unfeeling creature who cared about no one but Endymion! Why," she started, her voice wavering. "Why can't the past life just stay in the God damned past?!" Minako frowned. "Not all of the past is so horrible, Reiko. One day, you'll see, just like the rest of us have." Minako's mind flashed to a memory from their senshi days, about eight years ago. It was Valentine's Day, when Rei trailed Minako and found her at the Tokyo 'Institute', or rather a huge concert stadium in the center of Tokyo. She'd just stomped away from the curious and bold fire senshi, exclaiming about how the girl was stalking her and she didn't want to be bothered any longer. But in fact, she wanted nothing more than for the girl to chase her. It gave Minako something to look forward to. As she leant against one of the huge poles located on the outside of the stadium and tried to regain her strength back from one of her dizzy spells, she looked down at Artemis. "When Mars awakens... That's a day I'll be waiting for," she declared to him. Now here she was, watching the girl she referred to as 'Mars' come close to crying tears of anger, and she...felt somewhat responsible. Minako tried to get a grip on Rei's shoulders so she could look her in the eyes and calm her down. It took a few tries, but after she caught a hold of her, Minako placed her hands on the sides of Rei's smooth face. The priestess composed herself as best as she could, slowly bringing her dark eyes up to the pop-idol's light brown ones. "Usagi will always be Usagi. That person she became all those years ago was not the Moon Princess, but rather a being that she suppressed over the years. That being was deeply affected by Queen Metaria and Queen Beryl." Rei's facial expression remained sour. Minako noticed and tried to explain what she was getting at a bit clearer. "However, without those two forces around, that other being will never re-emerge again. I'm guessing you didn't have any dream-memories with Usagi in them, eh?" Rei shook her head, and Minako smiled. "Princess Serenity was just like our present-day Usagi. While she had more grace than her, their attitudes remain the same. Both were and are carefree, high-spirited, and both were and are always there when you needed-or rather need a friend. What I meant to say before was that Usagi will once again become Princess, but not of the Moon. She will become Princess of the Earth, and eventually the Queen." Rei's jaw fell open. Minako grinned at her, caressing the former fire senshi's cheeks with her thumbs. "Hard to believe, I know. You, Ami, Makoto, and I will be called on once again to become senshi eventually, and our lifetime will seem endless, even though it won't be. The more we change back into our old selves, the longer our lives get. The time for Usagi to become Princess of this Earth could be drawing nearer, and that could be the reason why your memories are returning. "Some may displease you, but I hope that..." Minako took in a deep breath. "I hope that some of them make you happy." Rei wanted to pull away from Minako and call her crazy, but she couldn't. Minako knew the most about their former lives-she was the leader after all- and what she was saying...was more than likely true. Eventually Hino Rei would be swallowed up the Princess of Mars, and that scared her to death. While her life as Sailor Mars would gradually get longer, it seemed that her life as Hino Rei would quickly disappear, until she would be nothing but a memory. She took a long look at Minako. "Will Aino Minako disappear as well?" "You know," Rei said aloud. "I no longer think it's my past life I'm scared about re-living. No...It's not that. I just-" Tears stung Rei's eyes without warning, and she found herself trying to suppress a sob. Minako looked at her, noticeably concerned. "When you died, I- I wasn't sure if I'd be able to put myself back together. I didn't know if I'd be able to be strong for the rest of the senshi, and take your place as leader. You were what kept me going, what made me stronger. It was the first time that I had someone like that since...my mother died. You helped me so many times to awaken and become a better person and soldier and I never even realized it. Being the angsty teen that I was...thinking that everyone was against me... I believed you set me up just so I could fail. But...you were aiming for the complete opposite. You were setting me up to succeed. By the time I finally came to that conclusion, it was too late to thank you. I think that I...I'm afraid to re-live that life." A tear slid down Rei's cheek, but Minako was quick to wipe it, and any other threatening tears away. She could barely handle when she found out from Artemis that Rei had taken her death so badly, and cried the most and hurt the most out of all of the girls. Now, she was seeing it for herself, and she knew she didn't like it too much. It was making her own eyes well-up with tears. "I don't want to re-live that moment from the life before Usagi revived us ever again. It's obvious you died in the past life as well, and there's only so many times a girl can take her best friend dying, you know?" She sniffed and added a light chuckle at the end, and Minako did her best to smile. Rei seemed to love to joke about somewhat morbid things. "You won't," Minako said. "Usagi and Mamoru have broken the curse that was set on all of us during our time on the moon. You—we don't have to worry about any of us dying ever again... At least not for a very long time. We're now free to live our own lives, even if to you, it doesn't seem that way. Someone helped me once to realize it would be best to live as Aino Minako rather than Sailor Venus. Now I'd like to give you the same advice. Just because these memories are coming back to you doesn't mean you have to start existing as Sailor Mars. You are not Mars." Minako found her chest tightening with those words. She swallowed. "You are Hino Rei." Rei's tears grew stronger then, and this time, she allowed herself to cry fully in front of the pop-idol, and her destined best friend. She let herself fall into Minako's arms. Although Minako was surprised at first, she too let herself cry. She wrapped her arms around Rei and held onto her as tightly as she could, as if that's all that mattered. ...As if that's all she needed to reassure her that one day, maybe sometime in the distant future, or perhaps in the near future...that Rei would love her back. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It was decided that Rei would stay the night. She insisted that she would sleep on the couch, but Minako steadfastly refused to let her, and instead slept on the couch herself. The next morning, Rei awoke at 7 A.M. exactly, as it was a habit of hers. She decided she'd let the always over-worked pop-idol sleep in, and leave a note instead of waking her up. Even though it was spring, it was unusually chilly. Rei shivered and shut the huge window overlooking Tokyo. She rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself up as she went over to Minako's sleeping form. The couch was virtually in the same room as the bed, and at first Rei found it hard to fall asleep knowing another person was in such a close vicinity to her. When she'd first arrived at the shrine, it'd taken her a good three years before she was able to get a good night's rest. Minako, however, was different. Before they'd fallen asleep earlier that morning around 3 A.M., they exchanged conversation from their respective resting places. Rei smiled to herself as she remembered how Minako had tried desperately to stay awake. When the priestess heard her pop-idol friend start to mumble nonsense about different types of farm animals and such, she knew the girl was falling asleep. She brushed a stray bang from Minako's face, letting her hand linger for a few extra seconds. She debated on whether she should give her a goodbye kiss—on the cheek of course. After about two seconds, she decided against it. She wasn't completely sure why she'd had the urge to in the first place anyway. Rei took a taxi back to her shrine. When she arrived, she climbed up the stairs only to see the shrine desolate, spare a few crows. The high school students who volunteered to work there every weekend were missing. All that remained were a few lonely brooms leaning against various walls of the shrine. Rei narrowed her eyes as she scanned the temple for further inspection. It looked like people had scurried off only moments ago. That's when she heard a familiar female voice. "Kamada-kun! You're so strong!" Rei leant over and poked her head out so she could hear better. "I can't even carry one bucket down the stairs without have trouble!" "Kamada-kun, would you like me to make you some breakfast? We have plenty of food here!" came another female voice, again, veryfamiliar. "I'll help!" a third girl shouted. "Kamada-kun?" Rei thought to herself. "I haven't heard anything about a 'Kamada' stopping by this morning." She sighed angrily. "Those girls better not have brought a man into my shrine, especially without permission." The priestess entered the shrine, deeply irritated by how her students were just standing around and not cleaning, or...praying. Instead, it sounded like they were ogling over this 'Kamada'. She headed for the kitchen because of the mention of breakfast, but was greeted by waves of laughter coming from a room that was OFF-limits to the girls, and mostly ANYONE but Rei and a miko named Mayumi. She furrowed her eyebrows. That was her room, and now there were not only giddy high school girls lounging around in there, but a stranger as well. They'd surely be reprimanded for this stunt... Rei strode into the fire room, making sure to pick her feet up and bring them down heavily to make her presence known. As expected, there were the three girls sitting on their legs in a small circle, and a man sitting Indian-style next to the eldest girl. A very good-looking man. "What are you doing?" she asked, eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms tightly together to emphasize her annoyance. Simultaneously, the girls gasped and picked themselves up off the floor faster than Rei and her friends ever had in their senshi days. "H-Hino-san!" a petite, fair-skinned girl with short hair exclaimed, eyes wide. The three high school girls bowed repeatedly and sputtered out a bunch of excuses and apologies at the same time, which agitated Rei further. She grabbed the bride of her nose with her thumb and index finger and let out a sigh. "All of you, calm yourselves down. You can explain to me what's going on individually. All of this yelling is make my head hurt." Truth be told, she knew what was really causing the headache. This was a another 'memory headache', her second one that morning. Luckily, she was able to ignore the one she got on her ride home from Minako's hotel in the taxi, but this one was coming on strong. Because she was beginning to see images of Mars and the other senshi every time she closed her eyes to blink, she did her best to blink as little as possible. However, her eyes were already turning red and burning horribly. She realized the position she was in at that moment made her look like she was about to break down and cry, so she quickly withdrew her hand from her nose and settled on her stance from earlier: Arms crossed and legs firmly planted. "Gomen ne, Hino-san! Kamada-kun," the eldest and tallest girl gestured over to the rising man. "H-He wanted to see you and I—we thought you'd be in here, b-but you weren't." "So what is your excuse for remaining in here?" "We-" "Hino-san," the man, Kamada, said. He bowed his head and then brought his eyes up to meet Rei's. Rei was taken aback by the color of his eyes. They were so familiar, so...warm. So much like- "Ohayo. I'm Kamada Yuuichiro. Sorry for showing up unexpectedly, but I needed to see the head priest immediately. It's urgent." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! Sailor Mars and Venus plushies for everyone, yay::throws them into crowd:: I originally had a huge fight go down between Mars and Venus on the moon, but I decided to take it out and only keep part of it for another chapter. I came to the conclusion that while there was a lot of tension brewing between the two, they wouldn't act out violently in such a public place (the scene took place at a ball). I didn't and I'm not going to go too deep into thier past, because there are already plenty of good fics dealing with Rei and Minako and their time on the moon. Only significant memories will pop up every now and then. While Rei and Minako will continue to regain/think about memories, none of the memories will get too in-depth and deep. I'll try to stay in the 'present' as much as I can. :-) And yes, that IS the Kamada Yuuichiro (or Chad) from the anime. For those of you who don't know, he was the closest thing to being a romantic interest for Rei (besides Mamoru) in the anime. I was never really that fond of him, just because I thought she could get someone way better, but he's an all-around good guy. His personality will probably differ somewhat from that of the anime (hey, it's PGSM anyway! everyone seems to be different in that!), but not too much. Let's just put it this way... He'll prove to be competition for Rei's heart. And, we all know how Minako is when it comes to competitions, especially concerning Rei... Thanks again! P.S. Sorry for any grammatical errors!
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