Of Memories in Sleep


Reika woke with a gasp.  She had just had a strange dream.  
What was even stranger was that in the dream she was trying 
on her new dress.

At first Reika thought that she was just replaying yesterday 
afternoon in her head.  She was in front of a three-way mirror 
in her dress...but she was also wearing a tiara.

"Good.  It fits then," said a voice.  Reika looked into the 
mirror and saw an older version of the girl she met yesterday.  
Here, however, the girl no longer looked about twenty-seven; 
she looked about forty-seven...and Reika felt that she was even 
older than that.  The older woman wore a beautiful green court 
dress and a crown.  The older woman smiled, "I knew it would 
look good on you.  You look better in it than I did."

"It is perfect.  Thank you, your majesty," Reika heard herself 
say.

"I know you feel the need to practice your public manners at 
all times, Your Grace," the lady laughed, "but in private, it
is not required.  Call me Adaunde.  After this is all over, 
you can call me Mom.  But let us start with Adaunde.  I do not 
think you can handle 'Mom' yet."

"I am sorry."

"Oh, it is fine.  This is just a bad habit that we shall have to 
curb."

"But Lady Maxine and Lady Keiko do not seem to have the same 
problem with this that I do," Reika's dream self had said in a
concerned voice.

The lady waved off her dream self's concern, "Lady Keiko 
has been around me since before she was born.  I was 'Ween 
Dawn' before she could say 'queen,' much less understand what 
it meant.  As for Lady Maxine, we merely have similar thinking.  
But trust me, they have problems in other areas that you do not have."

"Your maj- Adaunde.  Do you think that I can do this?  Do 
you think I can-"

"Be a good queen someday?  Of course I do.  Besides, you shall 
have Endy with you for always.  You shall not be alone.  Love makes 
everything possible.  Now, let us talk about what to do with 
your hair."

At that point, Reika woke up.  She still remembered the dream, but,
oddly enought, the dream almost seemed like a memory.  Deciding that 
she was just over-excited from yesterday, she went ahead and got 
an early start on her day.

*****

May woke up slowly, although she was in shock, once again, 
from another "memory" dream.  She sat up in the queen-sized 
bed in the huge house she'd found for herself, Terry and 
Yusuke.  It used to belong to some Stanton guy before he 
disappeared.  She did think it was kind of odd that this 
amazingly rich guy just disappeared one day.  If she was 
in the US, she'd think he would be hiding in the Caymen 
Islands to avoid paying real estate taxes on this amazing 
house, but she was pretty sure that the Japanese did not 
behave that way.  Did someone help him to disappear 
permanently?  May shrugged away her spectulation and confusion 
about what happened to the previous owner of the house.  
She needed to concentrate on the dream to see if she could 
figure out what it meant.

At the opening of the dream, May was in front of a screen 
of some kind.  It appeared to be a picture phone.  May 
couldn't see herself, but she could see the other woman 
clearly.  For some reason, that odd hairstyle and white 
dress made her angry.

"...alliance for my people," May had been saying.

"Yes, alliances, even paper alliances, save whole kingdoms," 
the other woman said.  "But paper contracts and treaties are 
broken all the time."

"What are you saying, Serenity?"

The other woman's eyes narrowed, showing annoyance, "All I am 
saying is that paper agreements can be ignored or voided.  
People tend not to attack their children, however.

"Oh, and by the way," the woman refered to as Serenity 
continued, "My only daugher met both Endymion and Tremaine 
during the last diplomatic mission your planet undertook.  
She was impressed by both of them. Now if you will excuse me, 
I need to make sure that Mercury does not cross me again.  
I would hate to have to take off their protective shield and 
expose that entire planet to the full force of the sun."

The picture winked out and the transmission ended.  There was 
a resigned sigh and then May woke up.

Who was this Serenity?  And why did she make May feel so angry?  
Was this the evil empress?  And who was May that she was in 
negotiations with her?

"Why does none of this make sense?" May asked to the early 
morning stillness.

*****

He stood in a castle hallway.  To be more precise, he stood 
in front of a guarded door.  He said something to the guard, 
who, after bowing, opened the door.  Striding in, not noticing 
the guard closing the door behind him, he stopped in front of 
a double throne.  A woman sat on the right, but he couldn't 
see her face.  He could see that she was wearing a formal
black gown.  While such a dress was very appropriate for a 
formal celebration, for some reason he knew she wore the 
dress as a sign of mourning.

"They shall be here soon," he heard himself say.

The woman on the throne nodded.  "Thank you for coming to tell 
me, Endy."

"You are welcome, your majesty."  For a moment, he paused.  
Then, "Mummy?"

He sensed that the woman smiled, "You picked up that horrid 
name from your father.  For years I have tried to get you to 
stop calling me that; to get you to call me 'Mama' instead.  
Obviously, it has not worked," the woman laughed, but her tone 
sobered when she noticed that he wasn't smiling.  "What is it, 
Endy?"

"With everyone wearing black, I mean, will they not realize 
that we are not celebrating and retaliate against us in 
some way?"

"We shall just tell them that we wear black for formal celebrations 
on this planet."

"And how do we explain the eyes that are red from crying?"

"Earth illnesses," was the calm reply, as if the speaker had
spent some time thinking about that exact issue.  The next statement 
had a slight edge to it, however, "Besides, I would not ask the 
nobility to change.  It is a good constrast to the Lunarians in 
their white, and it is good for the people to see."

"So that they can tell the good guy from the bad guys?  
Because the good guys are dressed in black?" Endymion asked.

"Well, that and re-affirming the right to grieve."

The room was silent for a few minutes.  Then the woman 
said, "Endy, promise not to forget us.  Please."

"Mother!" he explained, aghast, offended, and hurt, "I 
would NEVER-"

"Sweetie," the woman interupted, "soon you shall be leaving...
your home for a long time and you shall be on her turf.  I may 
think that Serenity is a witch, but I never thought she was 
stupid.  She will have a lot of sway in that world and over 
her daughter.  It would be in her best interest if you forgot 
us.  I am asking you not to.  Promise me you shall remember us."

"I promise, Mother.  I shall remember you and father, Tremaine 
and Arlington, and Daniella...and I shall love you all.  Forever.  
They will not take that away from me."

Mamoru started awake.  Unable to go back to sleep, he walked out 
onto his balcony.  "What do these dreams mean?" he asked the night.

He'd been having this same dream off and on for about two 
weeks now.  He sighed.  He knew he needed to tell Usagi and 
the others about the dream...but he didn't know how to broach 
the subject.

Mamoru had an interesting history with dreams.  At times they 
had been prophetic, at other times they had been scare tactics 
or warnings, but they had always profoundly affected his life -
usually because he didn't share them with anyone.  But this 
dream was more disturbing than the others because it seemed like 
a memory.

That and the fact that he called the woman in the dream "Mother".

Mamoru groaned in frustration.  There were big holes in everyone's 
memory of the Silver Millennium.  There were big holes in his memory 
in general.  Maybe he was actually remembering his Silver Millennium 
family.

Pluto would know, and Mamoru hoped she'd show up soon.  He 
now had a lot of questions to ask her, especially about the 
relationship between the Earth and the Moon.

*****

Pluto looked out over time, concerned.  In the last two weeks 
there had been some minor shifts in dimensions.  This, of course, 
happened naturally.  Big events or choices that did and didn't 
happen combine to shift worlds.  Rarely was it ever a concern
at least it wasn't a concern to her until it threatened her 
future queen and the dream world she'd worked hard to put into 
place for Serenity's daughter.  Pluto sighed.  Guarding the Gate 
of Time was always more than just guarding it.

These minor shifts in the last two weeks disturbed her slightly, 
so she decided to take a closer look.  Waving her staff so that 
she could see the movements between dimensions and time, Sailor 
Pluto looked closely at the dimensions that had been disturbed.  
Realizing what dimensions had been disturbed and that there was 
a recent disturbance in the Crystal Toyko timeline, she paled.  
"There is no way that they could be reuniting!  Not after I-"  
Grabbing her staff, Pluto headed for the Time Gate.  "I have got 
to get to the senshi quickly.  I have to stop this."

- to be continued -