Usagi nodded slightly, trying her best to stay awake through whatever it was that Luna was saying; she couldn't tell anymore. She was way past exhausted, and all she really wanted to do was sleep.
The black cat gave up with a sigh. "This is pointless if you can't stay awake, Usagi-chan. Go on to bed, and we'll continue this in the morning, okay?"
"Okay, Luna. Doomo."
She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She'd been doing that a lot lately, and she knew she'd been having some really strange dreams that she could never remember when she woke up. Maybe I'll remember them tonight, she thought as she drifted off.
* * * * *
Usagi glanced around her in complete confusion. The landscape around her was composed mainly of whites and other pale colors, muted even more by the fog-like aspect covering the area.
She glanced down at herself. She was dressed as Princess Serenity, but it wasn't the dress she normally wore. This one was shimmering and colored white and pale blue. The bow in the back looked amazingly like faery wings.
So then this was the Moon Kingdom? some part of her mind asked. It seemed like it, but not any part of it that she really remembered. Granted, though, she didn't recall too much of her past life. She felt younger too than she was when she came here before.
Something didn't seem quite right, as if she wasn't in control of her own body. And when someone spoke, saying simply, "Renity?", she knew she was not the one who turned. Rather she was deep inside, looking out at what should be directly in front of her.
In a voice that seemed to come from her throat but did not really seem that way, she answered, "Over here, itooshi!" She could feel herself smiling in a disattached way, and she could feel joy spreading through her.
The man who appeared. . . well, he was not Endymion.
For starters, he was much, much more handsome - and she didn't even scold herself for thinking it. It just seemed to spring forth from some place inside her she'd forgotten all about. To anyone else, those deep eyes might seem as ice cold as was their color, but something told her he was anything but cold, at least to her.
"Are you hiding out here or something, Renity?"
She rolled her eyes and latched onto his arm. "Hai, hai! Rei-chan's after me, and I couldn't find you or Endymion-kun anywhere!" She narrowed her eyes and tried to look suspicious, attempting to poke his arm as she spoke; the muscle didn't give a millimeter. "Where were you, itooshi?"
"That's a secret," he whispered, leaning down and brushing his lips against hers; he wasn't that much taller than she was, but it seem that way sometimes. She reached up to tangle her fingers in his long hair. "But first, happy birthday, Renity."
Suddenly he vanished and the entire scene went white. "Hello?!?!?" she called out into the open emptiness. "Is anybody there?"
"Oh, daughter," a soft voice whispered behind her. She whirled to see her mother.
"Queen Serenity, okaasan."
"I didn't think you'd ever started to remember," the specter continued, as though she'd never spoken, "but now that you have, daughter, you deserve all your past, no matter how different it may be from what I lead you to believe."
"Okaasan?"
"Just relax, Serenity, and remember." Phantom lips brushed her forehead and she sank back into her dream.
::End Prologue::
30 October 2000
A.N.: As per requests, here it is: the beginning of Future Past. Hope you all enjoy!!!!