Part 4
A little over a half hour later found the Senshi trooping after Usagi beneath the city into what had at one point been the lobby of an abandoned building of some sort. Judging by the looks, the place had been an expensive hotel before the quake that buried most of the city nearly a century ago. Usagi had found the place some time ago while making an escape from some unusually persistent and highly pissed bodyguards after a job. After resting there for a while she had decided that the place made too good of a safe house to leave abandoned. She had taken great pains to see to that Mamoru didn’t find out about her little hideaway and over time had transformed the lobby and most of the rooms on the first two floors into a comfortable little home away form Mamoru. It hadn't taken much to wire the place to the city's electric grid. She had also added enough defenses, both magical and mundane, for the place to qualify as a fortress in most peoples mind. The difficulty in getting to the place combined with some extremely powerful and yet subtle illusions, had helped insure that no one would stumble across it by accident.
The group was somewhat awed at finding such a place still intact underneath the city. Getting there had required a bit of an effort and going for quiet a bit, but now that they had arrived, no one was complaining. All of them had stayed in Senshi form, partly in case they were spotted, but mostly because they didn’t quiet trust each other just yet.
“Make yourselves at home,” Usagi told them, gesturing to the left side of the lobby toward what looked like it would have been a living room had it had walls to separate it from the rest of the room.
Looking around, they could see that the whole place was divided into these little sections. One of the sections that caught their attentions was what looked like a library or maybe a study, with books, a fairly up to date computer, a desk, and two mid sized tables with opened books lying on them. There was another section that was full of gym equipment and practice dummies and wooden targets or dummies with knives sticking out of them. The section that they all found most disturbing was the section that looked like a shooting range.
Usagi disappeared briefly as everyone was getting seated, only to reappear with snacks. It was just some stuff she kept around for her seemingly insatiable appetite, as she’d never imagined she’d have guests down here. The only other food was the emergency supplies stored in a couple of the upstairs rooms.
The conversation was soon picked up from where it had been left off as the group had had to concentrate more on getting safely to their destination than on listening to what the girl, who had at the request of Usagi return to her natural cat form as she had been to clumsy to make the trip on her own as a human, had been trying to tell them.
“So, what you’re telling us is that she,” pointing at Sailormoon, “is supposed to be the Moon Princess we’ve been searching for over the last few years?” Sailor Jupiter began things by asking Luna. It was somewhat of a surprise to have the person that they had spent so much time searching for, suddenly show up out of nowhere and some of the girls were having a hard time believing the cat. “What sort of proof do we have that she’s really the one?” she asked, crossing her arms and looking down at the cat.
Luna huffed and glared at the senshi of Jupiter, “If my word isn’t enough for you, then perhaps your own memories will suffice,” she answered coolly. “If you girls would just trust me, I’d be happy to restore them for you. I don't think any of you were ever so suspicious in the old days,” she added with a frustrated sigh. She had been trying to convince them let her restore their memories with little success for some time now.
Luna was being pushed beyond the limits of her patience as she tried to convince the doubtful Senshi that she was telling the truth. Her only allies turned out to be Venus and to the others’ surprise Mars. She assumed that Usagi was still soaking in her new memories as the girl had done little to support Luna attempts at gaining the other senshi’s trust. She was almost desperate enough to wish Artemis were here.
“I simply find it hard to believe that after all the searching that we’ve done, that the Princess would just show up out of nowhere,” Ami’s agreed. “You must have some sort of proof.”
Due to years of training to stay in the background, Usagi didn’t like it with all this attention on her. She had spent most of her life avoiding anything that would bring her into the spotlight and yet at the same time she remembered that during her life at the time of the Silver Millennium that she had looked forward to and thrived on any sort of attention. But especially the attention of people she knew loved her and not just The Princess, The Heir, or The Future Queen. And she remembered that the women surrounding her now had been the ones to love her most.
“Those were some pretty slick moves you were using back there, Princess,” Haruka interrupted yet another set of the past life memories Usagi had been slipping into. She didn’t know if this girl was really the princess or not, but she definitely respected the fighting skill that had been displayed against that youma. “I didn’t recognize the style you were using, but it was pretty damn effective. Maybe we could spar sometime?”
Usagi found it funny that this was the same person who’d had to be restrained from beating on a palace self defense instructor for giving her a bloody nose once. Still unsure as to how to act around her new/old friends, Usagi smiled, “I think that I’d like that,” she told the short haired blonde. She was fairly sure that the Senshi would be shocked at just how proficient she really was at fighting. The person she remembered being, was nearly as clumsy as she usually pretended to be.
The conversation between Senshi and cat was interrupted as Usagi, turning away from saying something to Haruka said, “Look, why don’t one of you let her restore your memories. If it turns out okay, the rest of you get a turn. If not, I don’t think you’ll have too many problems dealing with a cat.” Truth be told, while her old self might have found the situation amusing, Usagi was getting annoyed by the way the others were acting.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” Rei directed smugly to the others.
“But…” Michiru was interrupted before could finish.
“I can’t speak for the Outers,” said Venus, “but I do speak for the Inners and I say we give it a go. Mercury, use you visor and computer to monitor what happens and at the first sign of anything suspicious tell Mars and Jupiter.” She turned look at the two she mentioned, “If Mercury says something’s wrong, I want you two to fry the cat,” she told them.
“I do have a name, you know,” Luna stated primly, “And that plan is perfectly agreeable to me. Now are there any other excuses not to get this over with?” she asked.
Without another word Venus went to kneel before the cat. The crescent moon on Luna’s forehead started to glow softly, causing Ami to mumble softly to herself as she saw the readings. Suddenly the glow increased and a line of light shot out from the mark to hit Venus squarely on her forehead, causing both Mars and Jupiter to look questioningly at Mercury, who merely shook her head mutely.
When the light show finally died down, Minako just sat there for a while, a slightly glazed look in her normally vibrant eyes. The others were starting to get worried when her eyes suddenly cleared up. She suddenly looked back a forth before she locked her gaze on Usagi. Moving slowly, an expression on adoration on her face, she moved to stand directly before her Princess. She dropped to one knee and took the other girl’s hand in her own and spoke in a language that was only understood by Luna and Usagi
“My life for yours. I live to serve you, my princess.”
The strangely familiar words seemed to trigger something deep inside Usagi. The words found their way out of her without her consciously deciding to say them.
“To protect and serve. To be protected and served. Rise my Senshi.” she brought the hand in her own to lips to kiss the back, thus completing the ritual.
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