Ranma: Senshi of the Moon chapter 3

1/2 Moon
A Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon Crossover Fan Fiction
By Michael A. Ivins

What was that? You say I don't own Ranma or Sailor Moon? Are you sure?
Oh, all right! If you insist! I'm just a fanfic writer playing around with other people's characters. There, I said it! Are you happy?

Chapter 3
Memories of Times Long Past

After causing the spirit of the cat-fist to disperse itself into the background of Ranma's mind, Luna's projected image had felt drawn to what seemed to be a representation of the boy's memories of his past life in the Silver Millennium. When she had spotted a memory of her earlier self, she had touched the barrier and, it had unexpectedly ruptured. The resultant flood of memories had slammed into the cat's mental probe and pushed her out. Within Ranma's mind memories came in a torrent.

FLASH

The newborn baby girl lay in the crib looking up at the face of a woman with long silver hair that streamed out in two long tails to the sides. There was a loving smile on her face as the woman proclaimed, "As required by family tradition You are Princess Serenity. Your name to friends and family will be Serena."

Even though she could not yet understand the words being spoken, the little girl remembered them. There was a bond she had with this woman. She didn't know what it meant, but she did know that it felt good being near her.

A knock came on the door and the silver haired woman turned away from her new daughter. The child looked through the bars of her crib and could see a tall, gray haired man come in through the door.

"My Queen, may I speak with you?"

The silver haired woman acknowledged and the man said, "I have news I thought you should know."

"What is the news?"

"In our examination of your daughter we found that she is the possessor of a Senshi Star Seed," the man reported.

The queen frowned on hearing that. "How is that possible? To my knowledge there has never been a Senshi in the Serenity royal line."

"I do not know, your majesty." The doctor continued, "All I can say is that the results of the examination leave no doubt."

The queen began pacing back and forth. The girl in the crib took notice and wondered what was wrong with the nice lady.

Finally the queen stopped pacing and said, "With the political situation on Earth, there is no way the nations down there would accept my daughter as Sailor Terra."

She let out a short bitter laugh. "It's ironic. Those squabbling nations can't reach a consensus on picking a girl to be Sailor Terra, yet I have no doubt they would band solidly together to oppose my daughter being given that position."

"What will you do?" asked the doctor.

Her expression changing to one of satisfaction, the queen stated, "When she is old enough and has completed her training, Serena will become Sailor Moon."

Puzzled, the doctor pointed out, "There has never been a Senshi of a moon that didn't have one for the planet that it orbits. How would that work."

The queen explained, "At times in the past, a planet Senshi could assign a portion of her power to a lesser Senshi, representing one of the moons of her planet. That is how Sailors Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan came about."

The woman walked over to the crib and held her hand out so baby Serena could grip one of her fingers. With a warm smile on her face, the queen went on, "In truth we would call my daughter Sailor Moon, but with no Senshi of Earth, she would actually be the Senshi for both."

"As earth is the only planet in the system that is livable without the need of magical constructs, the power available to the Senshi of that world would be greater than that of most other worlds."

"But what would happen if the nations of earth could put aside their differences enough to pick a Senshi for the Earth?" The doctor wanted to know.

"Then Serena's power would diminish," was the queen's simple answer. "That is why we must not tell the nations of Earth about this. When I am raising her, she will be given the training of a Senshi, but she will not openly show herself as Sailor Moon unless there is great need of her power."

FLASH

At five years old young Princess "Serena" Serenity was seated on the balcony of the Moon Palace. Her mother, Queen "Selene" Serenity sat beside her. It was one of the rare quiet moments that come in the busy life of a queen.

The two were looking up at the bright blue disk of the earth. The position of the moon today was showing the Earth in almost full phase. The platinum blonde queen pointed and said, "Do you see that land mass in the middle?"

Remembering her lessons, the little girl asked, "That's Atlantis, right Mommy?" She felt pleased with herself that she remembered.

"That's right Serena, dear," the queen agreed with a smile. She was proud that her daughter was already learning so much. "That is the land that is ruled by King Endymion. He has a son who is also named Endymion. Young Endymion is just a little older than you are."

"Am I ever going to get to visit the Earth?" the little girl wanted to know.

"Eventually," the queen assured her daughter. "You will get to visit most of the other planet kingdoms."

The blonde girl frowned in thought before asking, "We can't see Lumuria right now because it's on the other side, right?"

"Yes, dear." The queen pointed and said, "To the right and down from Atlantis is the Kingdom of Kush. You can't really see it right now because it is covered with clouds."

"I know what that means," little Serena exclaimed, looking excited. "There's bad weather there. It's probably raining and maybe a big storm."

"Clouds don't always mean a storm, love," the queen clarified.

FLASH

The six year old Serena put down the squirming form of the cat she had been carrying. "Luna! Why don't you want to play with me?"

"I'm sorry Serena, but I am the advisor to the Queen," the black furred Mau protested. "I have important duties. I can spend time playing with you. If you want me to help you with your lessons, I believe I can find time for that."

The little girl stuck her tongue out, then said, "You aren't any fun."

Another voice spoke, "I'll play with you."

Serena and Luna looked and found another moon cat. This one was larger than Luna with creamy brown fur on her body and darker brown fur on tail, paws and forming a mask that covered her face and ears. There was the normal crescent moon symbol marking the face of this cat.

"Bubastis?" Luna said. The other moon cat was a mere kitten by Mau standards, barely two decades old. She had yet to learn to behave in a properly dignified manner as befitted an advisor to royalty. Still, she might be suitable to play the part of playmate to a royal child.

The little blonde haired girl knelt down to put her closer to the new cat's level. She introduced herself, "Hello. I don't think I met you. I'm Serena."

The lean, elegant looking cat bent her front legs and lowered her head in a bow. "It is a pleasure to meet you, highness. The other Mau say I'm too young to take a 'serious' job. I've been getting bored with all of the things they're trying to teach me."

The princess's eyes lit up. "I'm bored too. Come on!" She ran down the hall and the larger moon cat ran after her. Luna shook her head and wondered if this was really a good thing.

FLASH

Still six years old, Serena was introduced to Tragis one of the instructors for the Royal Guards.

Dressed in an outfit that resembled a martial arts gi, but was made of much finer cloth and gave even better freedom of movement, Serena swung a kick into the pad her teacher was holding.

Although she was still small, the kick had a good deal of power in it. "Again," he ordered. And the little girl kicked into the pad. At this point they were in the training aspect of drill. The idea was to repeat certain motions so often that they became ingrained in muscle memory. If or when it came time to use the training, little thought needed to be devoted to how to perform the move, just which moves to use.

After more of this, Tragis finally said, "That is enough for today, Princess. You may go bathe and then get on to your other studies."

Serena had a aptitude for fighting seldom seen. She had gotten off to a shaky start due to poor coordination, but some special exercises had corrected those faults. Once she learned to move gracefully, her training began to progress

FLASH

Seven year old Serena was in class. The subject for the moment dealt with the Sailor Senshi.
One of the other students in the class asked, "If the Senshi are soldiers, why do they wear that silly outfit?"

The teacher fixed the inquiring student with a piercing gaze. "The Senshi fuku is not silly. The basic part of the uniform that is common to all Senshi is a leotard that gives the soldier full range of motion. The fabric of the suit possesses armor like qualities that protect the body."

The little girl who had asked the question was not intimidated by the teacher's look. She pressed, "But if the suit gives armor protection, why leave the arms and legs bare? Doesn't that make them vulnerable?"

The teacher now smiled. That was a slightly more intelligent question. "You might think so, but that is not the case. The uniform has magic that extends invisible protection to the arms, legs and head of the Senshi. That protection is equal to that granted by the suit itself. The Senshi transformation itself not only grants magical attacks and enhanced strength, but makes each of the Senshi tougher against damage."

"As for the decorative touches, that is a secret that is not been given to the public. The unique color of the outfits are indicative of the planets or moons of the Senshi's power source.

Spotting a raised hand, the Teacher called out, "Yes, Serena."

"Why is there no Senshi of Earth?" the princess asked.

The tutor explained, "The problem is that Earth is not a unified world. Of all the inhabited worlds of the Moon Kingdom, the Earth is the only one that has separate nations. Because of the nature of the magic there can be only one Senshi for each planet. Unfortunately, the nations of the Earth cannot agree on which of them Sailor Terra should come from. Each wants her to come from their own nation and none wants her representing any of the others."

"So they don't have a Senshi of Earth because they can't agree on who it is to be?" Serena summed up.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the teacher confirmed. "Complicating the picture, is the fact that candidates for Senshi of Earth are few. It takes a rare individual to become a Senshi. The only candidates now on Earth who have the necessary qualities hold political views that are strongly opposed by all nations outside their own."

Sadly shaking her head, "I'm sorry to say that it is unlikely there will be a Sailor Terra until a new possessor of a Senshi Star Seed is born. Such a child would have to be raised by a coalition group including representatives from all the major nations so that she would be free any regional prejudices. It was agreed that the Senshi of Earth must act for the good of the whole planet, not just one region or another."

FLASH

The eight year old Moon Princess was on a tour. Part of her responsibilities as princess included knowing about how the environment of the moon was maintained as defended. She had visited the massive computer complex known as the Eternity Mainframe.

They stood now in the main core of the complex that was located beneath the palace. To use what many considered an oddly Earth based metaphor, the Palace was merely the "tip of the iceberg." The underground complex occupied ten times the space of the palace itself.

For all the grandeur of many of the chambers, the central core of the computer was deceptively simple and even plain in appearance. There were desks with computer terminals and a crew of operators at work. In truth the computer was quite capable of running itself, but the workers were there to monitor the various systems under the control of the Eternity Mainframe.

Today Serena was being taken to be "introduced" to the main system. At the front of the room there was a large comfortable chair. The little blonde girl walked up and hopped into the chair. It was plainly intended for an adult, because her feet couldn't reach all the way to the floor while sitting in it.

The Chief Technician called out, "Activate voice interface."

"Voce Interface active," the pleasant, synthesized voice replied. It was a woman's voice that was intended to be an amalgam of several different people and therefore not match any specific individual.

"Recognize Chief Technician Garmain," the technician commanded.

The computer scanned. It had far more reliable methods of determining identity than just image, voice or even DNA. All such things could, and at times in the past had been faked. Using the combination of magic and technology, the Eternity Mainframe was able to scan the very soul of the person presenting himself.

"Identity verified," the computer stated. Then in less stilted tones it said, "It has been a while since we've talked, Garmain. How can I help you today?"

The Chief Technician smiled before saying, "I regret we won't have a chance to socialize today. We have an important task to complete today. Please scan the person now seated in the chair."

"Scanning," the computer replied. A short while later it announced, "Scan complete. Is this Serena, Selene's daughter? My goodness, if weren't for the color of your hair, you would look almost like a younger copy of your mother."

Feeling slightly intimidated by the reputedly vast intelligence of the computer speaking to her, Serena replied, "Yes ma'am, Miss Eternity. I'm Serena."

Garmain added, "I confirm that." The confirmation was not needed. The computer had scanned the girl one day after her birth, when the queen had presented her child.

"Greetings child," the computer responded. Then more formally, it announced, "Recognizing Princess Serena Serenity. Per the instructions of Queen Selene, you are granted full override authority. You will also be granted access codes for remote access from any terminal or mobile computer."

Serena got up from the chair and bowed. Before she could speak more to the computer, Luna came forward and proclaimed, "Very good. We can't dawdle here. We have a lot more things to see, so we must continue the tour."

The little girl cast a sour look at the royal advisor but went to join her. She wished she had her playmate, Bubastis with her. Boo had begged off, saying it would be just too boring.

The tour included power systems, maintenance, weapons and many others. Each visit was accompanied by a boringly detailed lecture on the functioning of the machinery they viewed. Serena couldn't even take refuge in feigning interest while thinking of other things, because she knew she would be quizzed on this stuff later to be sure she had understood all of it.

FLASH

In secluded part of the palace, away from prying eyes, fourteen year old Serena and her mother stood in one of the practice rooms. The blonde girl didn't know the exact reason for their being here, but she had suspicions.

When the queen finished setting the controls that sealed the room from outside surveillance, she turned and produced a velvet covered box. This she presented to her daughter.

After opening the box, Serena found a golden broach. She looked up from this to gaze upon her mother's face and then asked, "Is this...?"

"Yes, my daughter."

Taking broach from the box, she set the box on the floor and pinned the jewel to her blouse. When it was properly affixed she touched the thumbs and index fingers of each hand to the sides of the broach and in firm tones, proclaimed, "Moon Prism Power, Makeup!"

For the first time in the history of the moon kingdom, a girl of the moon's royal family experienced the transformation. For the first time Sailor Moon stood ready to fight for love and Justice. Even if the costume looked silly, Serena felt a fierce pride in being selected to wear it.

It was too bad that the political situation with Earth would not allow Serena to openly declare her status as a Senshi.

FLASH

A fifteen year old Serena awoke to find herself snuggled up to another girl. A moment of confusion quickly gave way to memory of the previous night. Now she knew why she was sharing a bed with the Senshi of Mars. Her nude body was currently spooned up against the nude body of her lover.

The blonde Princess of the Moon rubbed her hand lightly over the abdomen of the other girl, loving the feel of her skin. The stimulation of her touch was enough to bring a moan from the raven haired beauty.

"Uh!" the older girl grunted. There was a hint of pain in her voice as she begged to know, "What was in that punch we drank at the party?"

Chuckling softly, Serena bent over and spoke softly into Mars' ear, "I don't know, but I sort of like the results."

Becoming aware of the naked girl nuzzling at her neck, the Senshi of Mars groaned. "We didn't, did we?"

Kissing her lover's ear, Serena whispered, "We certainly did."

"Your mom is going to kill me when she finds out."

The Moon Princess chuckled softly and retorted, "Who says she's going to find out?"

The raven haired girl froze for a moment in astonishment. "Do you mean you're not going to tell her?"

Laughing again the blonde asked, "Why would I do a thing like that, Reina? If you're dead we wouldn't be able to do that again."

The older girl moved away from the princess and turned to lie facing her. "You want to do it again?"

"Pleeeease."

Reina studied the face so close to hers. She had always thought the princess was adorable and sexy. After studying that face for a little while longer, Sailor Mars finally said, "Well, the queen can only kill me once." She moved in to kiss the blonde.

FLASH

It was the ball celebrating Serena Serenity's 16th birthday. Everyone who was anyone in the Moon Kingdom had come. Even the somewhat reclusive Sailor Pluto had showed up. So many people were there that the Grand Ballroom was strained to contain them all.

In the receiving line, Serena, the Queen and several of the higher level nobles of the Moon Kingdom stood, to greet the visitors. Because of the large number of people who passed in front her that day, the majority of them were a blur. The Princess would have found it difficult to put names to faces later.

Serena was feeling a trifle sad. Reina, the Princess and Senshi of Mars had been required to return to her home world. As a princess herself, Serena recognized the necessity of such things, but she missed her lover. That was a major part of her reason for being so absent minded as she greeted her party guests.

But then there was a difference. A man garbed in a black tuxedo stepped up to her and bowed, taking her hand to kiss it. "I am Endymion, prince of the Kingdom of Atlantis," he proclaimed.

While mouthing polite niceties, the princess was struck by what she saw. The man was tall, handsome and well mannered. She had been hearing about this young man nearly all of her life and this was her first time meeting him. He was dreamy! She definitely wanted to get to know this man better!

Likely he wouldn't be an adequate replacement for Reina, but she would have to find out. She wasn't familiar with the phrase "being on the rebound" but would have recognized the concept if she had heard of it.

FLASH

The bombardment had stopped. Relative peace was restored to the Throne Room of Moon Palace. There was a faint haze of smoke in the air from burning furniture here and there. The crackle of flames were almost the only sounds audible. Some distance away there was a crash could be heard as a damaged section of wall finally surrendered to gravity.

Princess Serena Serenity lay still with her legs pinned by debris that had fallen from the ceiling. She couldn't feel her legs beneath the rubble. It seemed likely she had broken ribs pressing against her lungs because each breath was searing agony. Consequently, she tried to keep her breathing light and shallow. From her training, she knew that unless she received medical attention or magic healing soon, she was going to die.

Most, if not all of the palace staff were probably already dead. It would have to be so, or somebody would have come to the throne room and found her by now. Before a portion of the ceiling had collapsed on her, she had seen some of the courtiers lying in unnatural seeming positions around the room. She had managed to push some of the debris off her face and upper torso, but lacked the strength to shift the material that pinned her legs.

She had tried to draw her transformation broach from her subspace pocket, but was not able to bring it forth. Was she too badly injured for even the healing power of Sailor Moon? Or was the pain she felt disorienting her too much to focus on retrieving the artifact?

There was only one other thing she could try. One of the facets of her combat training dealt with channeling her internal life energies. While not so good as magic healing, it could be used to accelerate natural healing when no magic was available. She had a hard time focusing her will to assert the necessary control of her energies.

The girl felt a hand grasping her own and opened her eyes. When she looked to see the owner of the hand she found the face of her mother, the queen. The platinum blonde was bleeding from several small wounds and looked deeply fatigued and haggard. She lay on the floor next to Serena. It was apparent that the older woman had dragged herself to her present position. There was a trail of smeared blood on the floor that showed where the Queen had been.

Serena opened her mouth, but stopped when she felt fingers on her lips. The Queen's voice was raspy, as if she had inhaled fumes that irritated her throat. "Don't try to talk Serena. I can see how badly hurt you are. I just wanted you to know that Beryl didn't win. There was no way to destroy her so I sealed her, her patron Metallia and all of her youma away in a pocket universe. While I hope they will remain sealed up until they die of starvation, I can't count on it."

"It will take thousands of years for the seals on her prison to weaken enough for her to be able to touch the worlds again. To fight her when she is finally able to escape, I have cast spells to send the souls of the Senshi along with Endymion, the Earth Knight, into the future to be reborn in time to take up the power again."

"You are the last, my daughter." The queen's eyes momentarily closed. It was with a little shake that she brought herself back to full wakefulness. From what Serena could see, it looked like the queen was driving herself with little more than determination and will power. "I am at the end of my... strength. I have not the power to heal you nor the strength in my body to move the debris off of you."

Selene's body was suddenly wracked by hard, rasping coughs. When she could speak again, the queen said, "I'm almost out of time. I regret... that I never got the chance to see you fight as Sailor Moon. As the Princess... the task will fall to you to lead the rest of the Senshi after you are reborn. I know you will make me proud."

The last thing Serena saw was her mother reciting the words of the spell. Her strength was deserting her. It was becoming too painful to breathe and she closed her eyes again. As her awareness faded for the last time, she could still hear the murmur of her mother casting her spell.

FLASH

With that final flash, Ranma was back in his own body and mind. The boy moaned and pressed both hands to the sides of his head. "Oh Crap!" he exclaimed. "Was that... supposed to happen?"

Confused, the cat fearfully asked, "I... I don't know, what did happen?"

"Luna... I don't how you did it... but I just got... my past life memories," Ranma groaned. "16 years worth of memories... crammed into my head... all at once... Feels like... my head's gonna explode."

There was a knock at the door and Luna dived under the bed to hide. When Ranma called out, "Come in," Nodoka stepped in to see her son lying on the bed with a pained expression on his face. "Are you alright, Ranma? I heard what sounded like moans of pain. Did the meditation work?"

"Yeah... I think it did, Mom," he ground out, needing to pause to take a breath between phrases. "I'm pretty sure... I'm over the nekoken... but the side effect... It feels like my head... is going to split open... Do you have any... really strong pain killers?"

"I have some prescription pain medication left over from when I got sprained my ankle last year." Nodoka looked worried. "I healed up faster than expected, so I still have a few pills."

"Good... I... need one," the boy begged.

The older woman left and came back in a few minutes with a pill and a glass of water. He gulped the pill and took a sip of water to wash it down. "Thanks Mom... I think... I need to sleep... Right now... I don't think... I can do much else."

Concern clear in her voice, Nodoka suggested, "If you feel that bad, maybe you should stay home from school tomorrow."

"You... could be right," Ranma admitted. "Would you... call the school in the morning?"

"I'll call them from work," the older woman promised.

"Thanks," the boy answered then got up from the bed and lurched down the hall to the toilet. When Ranma returned to the bedroom she was in her female form, Luna asked, "Why did you change back to a girl?"

The red haired girl pressed her hand onto her forehead and groaned. "Do you mind... if I explain that in the morning? I need sleep."

"Alright," the cat agreed. She watched as the girl undressed and put on boxer shorts and a tank top. She got onto the bed and pulled the blankets over her. After lying with a pained frown on her face for a little while her features smoothed out and her breathing began to exhibit the deep slow rhythms of sleep. The medication her mother had given her had done its work.

Luna studied the face of the girl on the bed. This person looked different from what she had been told to expect. She just wished she could remember better what kind of girl Sailor Moon had been and what the Princess was like.

Author Notes: I've seen all of the anime of Sailor Moon (except the movies,) but haven't read all of the manga. I don't remember seeing in the anime where anyone ever made a point of whether or not there was a Sailor moon back in the Silver Millennium. I do remember reading in fan fictions where the authors did say there never was. I thought I would address that with Ranma's flashbacks to his memories of being the Moon Princess. It also explains why there is no Sailor Terra.

I would welcome ideas for other things to include in memory flashes from the Silver Millennium life of Princess "Serena" Serenity. One reader suggested a lemon based on Serena's affair with Reina, the Senshi of Mars. I wasn't planning to write one myself, but if anyone out there would like, feel free to write one of your own. I'd be happy to post it on my blog.

I don't recommend that anyone should take medicine that was prescribed for someone else. That can lead to unforeseen problems. Remember this is a work of fiction, so I'll put in the disclaimer (Like on TV) "Don't try this at home."