Hey everyone!  I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent me
email!  I love it and you!  It's helped me stay motivated about writing
this and I wish with all my heart that I could write back to everyone
but hotmail is the worst freaking email service anyone could have!  I
was deleting some junk mail from my account and instead of deleting
those one or two messages I didn't want, the thing deleted every
message, new, old, sent, received that was in my account!!  I was soooo
very angry because it meant I lost all the wonderful email I've ever
gotten (that I wanted to save forever and ever!) and also because it
meant that I couldn't reply to the people I haven't replied to yet.  So,
I apologize again for anyone who I haven't answered... it's not because
I'm rude, really!  Anyway, on with the show...

Missed Opportunities

Part 5

By Charma (neomoonies@hotmail.com)

        "What?!  Lord Arcadia's your what?" Sailor Mars demanded, shaking
Sailor Moon's shoulders gently but urgently.
        "Mars!  She's out cold," Mercury reminded the impatient girl.
        "Let's get her to the temple," Luna advised the others.  "We'll
explain there."
        "We?" Jupiter repeated, a little befuddled.
        "Yes.  I too remember the Silver Millenium."
        "The Silver Millenium??" three voices shouted at once.
        "Hey, sailor trash!  Hate to break up the party but you all need
to know that you are going to deeply regret what you did today," a voice
snarled suddenly.
        Mars and Jupiter stood up quickly, moving into a defensive stance.
        "You will pay!"
        "Where is that coming from?" Jupiter asked.
        "I don't know, but it's gone."  Mars closed her eyes in
concentration.  "I can feel it."
        Mercury looked up from her computer.  "The computer read the sound
waves, and it's telling me that was Zoicite speaking," she informed the
others.
        "She must be pretty peeved that we beat those stupid youmas,"
Jupiter observed wryly.
        "How about we get out of here so we're not interrupted again?
Maybe then I can fill you in on the past," Luna said pointedly.
        Three heads swiveled towards Luna and all interest was suddenly on
her.  Without another word, the Sailor Scouts quickly followed Luna to
the temple, the still comatose Sailor Moon hefted over Jupiter's
shoulder.


        "Serena, wake up!  It's time for you to give us the 411 on our
past," Lita ordered softly, gently splashing water on Serena's face.
        Serena's eyes opened slowly and she winced as her eyes adjusted to
the light.  She sat up sluggishly and looked around at her surroundings.
When she realized she was in Rei's temple and saw that everyone,
including herself, was detransformed, she made the only conclusion she
could.  "So the fight's really over then?"
        "Yes."
        "And Lord Arcadia's gone."
        "Yes."
        "And I am the Moon Princess."
        "What??!!" the others exclaimed with incredulity written all over
their faces.
        Luna gave Serena a look.  "Why don't we start from the beginning,
Serena, instead of dropping bombshells like that?"
        "She's the Moon Princess???"
        "I'm sorry Luna, but I can hardly believe it myself.  I had to say
it, otherwise it wouldn't seem real... but it still doesn't feel real or
true or possible! *I'm* the Moon Princess??"
        "*She's* the Moon Princess??"
        "Serena.  Don't you remember the past?  'Moon Princess' isn't a
title to fear.  It's you.  It was your life.  It *is* your life," Luna
said.
        Serena closed her eyes, but soon her frown was replaced by a
smile.  "You're right.  I am the Moon Princess."
        "Could someone please clear up *our* understanding of this?" Rei
asked impatiently.
        Luna blinked.  "Okay.  It all started a thousand years ago in the
Silver Millenium: a kingdom of happiness and peace..."

        "...On Princess Serenity's fourteenth birthday, Queen Serenity
announced the betrothal of the Princess to Lord Arcadia of Severin."
        Serena's eyes gleamed in remembrance and she interrupted the
talking cat.  "Arcadia wasn't just some stranger that my mother forced
me into marrying, though.  I'd known him all my life.  We were playmates
when we were babies and, as we grew up, he turned into one of my best
friends.  Needless to say, I was happy about the engagement.  So was he.
It's funny... after we found out we were to be married, we realized that
we were, and have been, in love with each other," she recalled
whimsically.  "After our engagement was made official, we started to
train together.  You see, he also had powers, like the Sailor Scouts
did.  During our training, we figured out how to do dual attacks.  I
actually remember the day we created the attack we used today.
Ironically, it was just a joke.  We created it to protect ourselves from
the mythological youmas that needed an excess of energy to die.  Of
course, those kind of youmas weren't real back then; we only read about
them in our mythology classes."
        "Actually, Serena, it wasn't a myth.  During the times of the
Silver Millenium, only very few of us knew about the Negaverse and the
possible threat it posed to the Moon Kingdom.  We knew that in the
Negaverse lived a kind of youma that grew in strength with a loss of
energy, so we prepared for them by giving you and Arcadia that power you
displayed today.  The youmas you girls saw today must have been the last
of a dying race," Luna mused.
        "You knew about the Negaverse??  And you told us it was just a
myth??" Serena asked accusingly.
        "It was for your own good," Luna answered patiently.
        Serena sighed, knowing it was useless to argue.
        Ami shook her head, somewhat dazed from the unfolding of her royal
past.  "This is unreal...  We're all princesses of entire planets?"
        There was a pause in conversation as all contemplated the fact
that they'd already lived one life a thousand years ago.
        "And then what happened?" Rei broke the silence, wanting to hear
the end of the story.
        "Well..." Serena looked at Luna.  "I don't remember what happened
after that."
        "I suppose we just have to assume that Beryl attacked not long
after that," Luna guessed (see A.N. below),  "though it's very strange
that our memory of the past ends there."
        "Do you know what Arcadia's real identity might be?" Lita
inquired.  "I mean, now that you remember him, does anyone you know look
like he might be Arcadia?"
        "That's the other problem.  I remember these things about my past,
but I can't visualize them!  It's so frustrating.  I know what happened,
but I don't have the slightest clue what the Moon kingdom looked like,
or what Arcadia looked like, or even what my own mother looked like,"
Serena griped in slight distress.
        "That's why we need to talk to Lord Arcadia about what he knows.
He seemed to remember the Silver Millenium even before you joined in the
attack with him, didn't he?" Luna questioned.
        Serena gave a slight nod, keeping to herself the weird phenomenon
of Arcadia being able to read her mind.  "If we can find him," she said
pessimistically.
        "Hey, Serena, do you still... care for Arcadia as much as you did in
the Silver Millenium?" Lita asked cautiously.
        "Well... yes.  No?  Maybe.  I don't know!  I still care for Lord
Arcadia of Severin from the Moon Kingdom, now that I remember him, but I
don't *know* the Arcadia of this life-how can I love him when I don't
even know him?"
        "And then there's Ethan," Rei murmured, speaking the words Serena
didn't want to hear.
        Serena nodded miserably.  "I know.  Ethan.  God, this complicates
things."
        For a few minutes, they all mulled over Serena's imminent decision
between destiny and Ethan.
        Seeing Serena's obvious torment, Ami decided to change the subject
and brought up something that had been bothering her.  "Luna, you said
that, in the Moon Kingdom, we were the Inner Scouts, meaning that we
came from the inner planets, minus Earth.  Well, I already know about
Jupiter, Mars, the moon, and Mercury, but what about Venus?  Is there a
princess and sailor scout for Venus?"
        Luna smiled in approval.  "I was wondering when one of you was
going to ask about that.  Yes, Ami, there is a Princess of Venus, and
she is Sailor Venus."
        Gasps echoed throughout the room.  "There's another one of us?"
Lita asked eagerly.
        "There is, although I'm not quite sure why she hasn't shown up
yet.  She will join us when the time comes, I guess.  And with Sailor
Venus comes her guardian cat, Artemis," Luna announced, a faint blush
spreading across her face.
        "Luna and Artemis are an item, if you know what I mean," Serena
announced with a sneaky glint in her eye.
        "Oooh, Luna, you have a man?" Lita teased.
        "No, she has a male feline," Ami corrected.
        "Whatever."
        "Sailor Venus," Rei muttered, trying out the phrase.
        "Yeah, well, that's basically all we know.  I'm sure your memories
will come back to you eventually too," Serena assured.
Luna scratched her ear with her paw.  "It's a bit to take in,
isn't it?"
"More than a bit," Rei retorted.
"I wonder where that Tuxedo Mask fits in with all this.  Do any of
you know who the heck he is?" Lita asked in bewilderment.
Serena shivered involuntarily.  "I was kinda wondering about that
myself," she admitted.  In the back of her mind, she remembered the rose
she found the first day she began fighting as Sailor Moon.  It somehow
reminded her of this elusive Tuxedo Mask...
"Shoot!" Ami suddenly exclaimed after glancing at her watch.
"It's after ten and it was my turn to make dinner tonight!  My mom's
probably worried sick."
"After ten?" Serena echoed.  "My parents are going to be so mad
that I didn't call!  They're gonna kill me!"  She hastily stood,
collected her things, and started to back out the door.  "We'll have to
talk about this later, I guess-OW!"  She turned around to see that she
had backed right into the door.  "Come on Luna!"
The rest of the girls watched as Serena tripped down the stairs
and began running off into the night with Luna.
Sweatdrops appeared on their heads when they heard Serena shout
to Luna, "Do you think Mom and Dad would buy it if I said they can't
punish me since I'm the Moon Princess?"
        Rei shook her head and groaned, "SHE'S the Moon Princess?
Unbelievable."



To be continued...

A.N.  I know that in the show no one knows about Beryl attacking the
Moon Kingdom until that episode when Serena gets her silver imperium
crystal, but I, wielding my awesome authoring powers, made it so that
they did know about the attack.  Just pretend that Jedite gloated about
it before they dusted him or something.

Sorry this was so short!  I just wanted to get the explanation of the
past out of the way in one nice neat chapter.  See you when chapter six
comes out!