AN: Well here we are, the last chapter of Path's Divergence

I do apologize for this one being late. A lot happened in the last two-three weeks and so we had to postpone it. As we sorted that out and edits.

Thanks again to Tsukikageshi for betaing.

Remember to leave a review or a comment at the end.

Chapter 35

At Path's End

Haruka was reluctant to go out despite that she must, leaving Michiru to watch over the still comatose Usagi. "Any changes?" A hint of hope and worry leaking into her voice as she asked Michiru. It had been a few days since the Dark Kingdom had been wiped out and Usagi shown no signs of waking. Luna would periodically come in and lay with her, fretting like a mother hen and asking if there had been any change. Things had been a bit chaotic in the aftermath, even more so then anyone could anticipate. Accidentally releasing Beryl and several former youma from the control of a demonic entity does have its consequences, but that could wait, and in the case of the Beryl, the situation could be better handled by others, until Usagi woke up again.

Michiru shook her head. "No, but Setsuna did warn us that she would be sleeping for a while." She reminded Haruka. Setsuna had warned them several times in the last few days about how rough the next few weeks were going to be. Usagi had nearly completely drained her magical core with the stunt at the Dark Kingdom, in a twist of fate they did technically owe something to Beryl and by extension Naru. If Naru hadn't come in when she had Beryl most likely would have never combined her magic with Usagi's to wipe out the Dark Kingdom. They could be facing a very different scenario if Naru hadn't made one arguably very irrational choice to jump in and try to help.

Even if Setsuna hadn't said exactly how much this had taken out of her, only really choosing to speak in broad terms, they all knew they had come dangerously close to losing Usagi. There were other signs there. How long Usagi had been asleep for one, even in the height of the rainbow crystal madness she hadn't slept more than a day straight. The other being how pale Hotaru had gotten at one point in the aftermath of the fight against Metallia, her face so easily matching the colorlessness of a paper and the way she seemed to cling to Usagi for a while after. It was all the confirmation any of them had needed for just how close Usagi had come close to dying.

"Can't hurt to ask." Haruka said with a sigh. They knew Usagi was alive and they knew how close they had come, but it was hard watching her in this state, especially with the how close death had been for Usagi. They needed her to wake. They needed the assurance she was alive, silly as it sounded, and not about to slip away at any moment.

"I know. We just-" Michiru cut off a moment later. "Usagi?" She thought she had felt the younger girls hand twitch, but maybe she was imagining things. It wouldn't be the first time she had thought that the girl might finally be waking up.

Blue eyes opened slowly, and it was the most beautiful thing either of them had seen in days. Usagi's mouth opened, and her voice didn't quite come out as anything more than a dry rasp before she groggily closed it with a frown. "I'll go get some water." Haruka said just about bolting for the kitchen area as it became apparent Usagi needed it. Not talking for five days meant she was bound to have pretty dry mouth. She would also likely want a shower.

"How are you feeling?" Michiru asked what both her and Haruka had a burning need to know as Usagi drank the offered glass a few minutes later. No one had been sure what to expect when Usagi finally woke up. Sure there was a precedent when it came to other forms of magical exhaustion from the past and then what Usagi herself had experienced but with the crystal involved this was fearfully unknown territory. They needed to know. The Queen had kept how the crystal worked pretty safely guarded and none of them had thought to ask what long term consequences might be on that last trip to the Moon.

"Tired. Is everyone alright?" Usagi asked after finishing her water. Her body felt like it was filled with lead weighing her down.

"Everyone's fine. We got back from where the Dark Kingdom was late Saturday. Its now Wednesday afternoon." Michiru answered. It had been five very long days waiting for Usagi to wake up. Her parents had been by several times fussing over her and if Michiru had seen her father cry she would take it to her grave.

"That was too close kitten." Haruka said. Part of her still held the opinion that they shouldn't have ever proceeded to the throne room to try and rescue Mamoru. It had all worked out in the end, but how easily could it have gone wrong? How easily could have one thing changed and Usagi not woken up ever again? It was a deep-rooted concern especially since, despite Luna's assurances that it should happen with time and wear Usagi out less, she didn't seem to be gaining ground with the crystal. A proper conversation about the whole thing with Usagi and using the crystal would have to wait. For now, Haruka was simply glad Usagi was alive and still here and able to tell them she was still here.

"Don't have to remind me." Usagi muttered more to herself than to the other two. That conversation with Shingo was still fairly strong in her mind. If anything could tell her just how far she pushed her magic that night, it was where she had been. She didn't regret her actions in trying to save another person, especially Naru. Usagi would do it again even if it costed her life to save her friend. The talk with Shingo though. Just where she had been drove home how close to death, she really had been. She could feel the sleep starting to creep back. "I'm so tired." She muttered more to herself than to the others. After sleeping for five days, you would think she would be able to stay awake longer than just this short bit.

Michiru sighed, Usagi's response wasn't overly expected, and neither was her sleepiness thanks to their discussions with Setsuna prior. "Its to be expected for the moment. This isn't going to go away overnight Usagi. Sleep for now. We can talk about all the other things later." For now, the discussion could wait until Usagi was more recovered. They couldn't put off certain things forever. At some point at the very least, they were going to have to tell her about the Beryl situation at the very least. Usagi didn't appear she could stay awake through that conversation at the moment.

"Do you want to grab some food and let the others know she woke up?" Haruka asked after a moment as Usagi drifted fully off into dreamland again, her own plans to go anywhere completely fleeing from her own mind. Even with the reassurance that Usagi had finally woken up and that felt like the first real step in the road to recovery she didn't think either of them were going to be letting the younger girl out of their sight anytime soon. Someone had to inform the others and she knew Michiru hadn't eaten in a while, so it might be best to do it in one shot. "You do need to eat and if the others don't find out they're going to start get concerned." Well more then they were at this point.

Michiru hesitated for a moment more before getting up. "They are already concerned. You'll update me if anything changes?" After Haruka gave a confirmation, she stepped out into the hall pulling her phone to call the others, fully intending to talk and fix food at the same time. At least one part of this ordeal was partially over at last. It finally seemed like Usagi would be alright, even if the road ahead was a long and arduous one getting there.

Around the time Usagi finally woke up after the fight Setsuna was dealing with a rather unhappy Beryl. Beryl was finally starting to regain some of her memories from the time between when Ruby had died and having been released from the Dark Kingdom's control. With it came a lot of questioning and angry comments particularly when it came to how the situation had come about in the first place.

"Serenity didn't tell her mother about us or any of the others for that matter." Setsuna said cutting into Beryl's rant. She understood where Beryl had possibly gotten the idea. But Serenity would never do that mainly because she risked losing too much by telling her mother about this. Serenity had known better than to let this kind of information slip, it was too dangerous for both her and anyone else involved in keeping the secret. Setsuna still didn't know who had finally let it slip to the Queen about who her daughter was actually seeing, but she did know it wasn't Serenity.

"How can you know for sure?" Beryl questioned crossing her arms. Wondering if this was some form of loyalty towards the crown that had Setsuna speaking this way. She knew at this point she was probably being a bit silly. She couldn't feel anything through the bond that suggested Setsuna was speaking out of loyalty for the throne than anything else. Beryl still had to know, needed to know, why Setsuna was so convinced on this subject alone.

Setsuna let out a sigh before answering. "Serenity risked losing her own bondmates if her mother found out the truth Beryl. Someone told the Queen but it certainly wasn't her daughter. Serenity knew what her mother could really be like at times and how risky their relationship was." Setsuna explained, reminding herself internally that Beryl, even at best, only knew a fragment of what had gone on behind closed doors with the Moon's Royal Family. She had no clue that Serenity's silver streaks were not an accident or even caused by an event at all.

Serenity had loved those two too much and knew her mother's views far too well. She had known, perhaps better than anyone else, what it would mean if the truth got to her mother about any of this. There was a reason why no one had told the Queen about this. The idea had been to keep it a secret until Serenity herself came into power and her mother could no longer easily control her. Unfortunately, the truth had managed to slip out while her mother was still in power and could still dictate decisions involving her daughter.

"I hadn't thought of that…" Beryl admitted after a second. Frowning after a second the way Setsuna phrased that it almost sounded like the Queen wouldn't support her daughter being with anyone other than some prince. "I thought the Silver Millennium was fairly progressive compared to Earth at the time?"

"It was." Setsuna confirmed. "I'm not entirely sure where the Queen's attitudes and opinions came from. They were unusual. I have some theories, speculations, but that's all they are. Nothing concrete on where they came from. I do know most of the Royal Families knew about the different princesses relationships including Serenity's and supported them. The exception was Queen Serenity, since as we were proven right, she would not react well to her daughter being involved with someone she hadn't given her prior approval for. Did you know at one point the princess had a crush on Princess Harmonia of Venus?"

"No I always thought she had eyes for just those two." Beryl said frowning slightly going off the one or two memories she had of Serenity with the other princesses. She had only been around to see a few interactions between the former princess and her soul mates before everything had gotten so messed up. She sure hadn't seemed interested in her generations Sailor Venus at any point that Beryl knew her. If she remembered correctly that Venus had been involved with someone else.

"That was some time before she met the two of them and became involved. She was young, still a child barely old enough to have them." Setsuna explained. This had been years before all of that. "But yes, she had one at one point. Something that she confessed to her mother only to have that conversation go badly. Venus was sent away with no explanation for quite some time and her mother lashed out at her rather badly. Serenity knew the cost of her mother finding out better than any of us. She would not have told the queen."

"So, it was all the Queen's fault then." Beryl said slowly. Taking Setsuna's non answer as a form of confirmation of her suspicions. She wasn't entirely sure if she was ready to accept this. She had always held some blame towards the princess for letting everything happen. To realize the Queen was the one that the blame needed to be placed on was going to take a bit to come to terms with. Especially after some of the events of the night of the fall. "Endymion's death?"

"Was at the Queen's hands." Setsuna answered. "Though even I'm not sure why she chose to do that. Or stab her own daughter." It wasn't something Setsuna had chosen to investigate despite having plenty of time to do it. The time around the fall was painful to her, it was why she kept going back and forth on actually looking into what had happened with Serenity's death at the hands of those despicable youma and mob of Terrans. To solve that mystery would mean observing the fall of the Moon Kingdom in all its gruesome details. She should look into it one day but for now that was a mystery for another time.

"So, this was really all brought upon because her mother simply refused to accept that her daughter had fallen in love with a pair of girls and had chosen to bond to them and not some Prince?" Beryl asked feeling the need for confirmation yet again. She couldn't believe that the fall of such a mighty kingdom had been brought about by one simple backwards idea.

"There were other things that led to that moment, but you are not wrong. Attempting to enforce her attitudes and her vision of the future she led to her downfall and that of many others." Setsuna said quietly. No one could have counted on Serenity falling in love with those two. Not even Serenity herself, in the early days on the Outer Rim, would have imagined such an outcome. Considering how much she had butted heads with them, in the beginning, she might have even laughed at the idea much earlier on. And yet that had been exactly what had happened. "Did you know that originally Serenity tried to flee her mother's grasp when it first came out that she had bonded and to whom?" She doubted it. Very few knew Serenity's initial reaction to her mother finding out. That she hadn't ended up in her room waiting for orders by her own choice.

"She did what?" Beryl asked clearly taken back by the thought. Serenity had seemed so devoted to her people that it was an idea that she was having a hard time wrapping her head around. No matter how madly in love she had been.

"Serenity knew the minute her mother found out that it would take a miracle for her to continue with them, bond or no bond. She didn't want to lose them. She never made it past the castle grounds. Someone caught her and brought her back to the throne room before she could escape to either of the outposts or to another royal family that would support her." Setsuna quietly explained. "The Queen then told her that she either could forget them or step down as the Crown Princess before she was banished to her room for a period. Ultimately though…"

"There was never a choice." Beryl realized. As it began to hit home just how much Serenity herself was as much a victim as everyone else that had been involved in her own mother's schemes. "This is a lot more difficult of a situation then I thought it was." Beryl said after a slight pause. She had thought for a while there she had a handle on what was what. On who she could trust and who she could blame. This changed that.

"The others are having their own difficulties reconciling the situation." Setsuna answered. Remembering the already couple of conversations the others had had on the topic of why Beryl had become the way she was while Usagi was sleeping. "A lot of things have changed recently but you were still the leader of the enemy up until a few days ago. No one's expecting anyone's opinion to change on the other overnight." This was something that was going to take a lot of time and patience on both ends to set up any kind of trust even if it ended up being a small amount.

"Well at least its a two-way street there." Beryl finally said. "Why did her mother do all those things, to begin with?" Beryl asked the one question that had been predominately on her mind since her memories had started to come back.

"She was trying to preserve the Kingdom from what I could understand. However, probably the biggest irony of this whole situation is that her mother by trying to preserve the Kingdom ended up bringing upon its downfall. If her mother had let her be Serenity would have brought in an unprecedented era of peace and prosperity to the Silver Alliance. However, since her mother was so focused on her vision, she ended up writing the downfall of us all." Setsuna quietly added after a moment. She had seen, at one point, what the timeline would have been if her mother had stepped back, or if her mother had never found out who she was actually involved with. Unfortunately, neither of those things had happened, and everything came to a rather horrific end.

It took a few days before Usagi really could stay awake for long enough to have visitors. She found that she already hated this recovery already. It reminded her of her time after the earthquake. She had spent most of that time once she had finally awoken from her coma feeling weak and easily tired too. The less she tried to remember those six long months in the hospital the better.

Now that she was staying awake long enough to hold proper conversations her parents were some of the first. They had dropped by prior of course but it had either been when Usagi was still sleeping off the crystal use or they would just miss her being awake when she was still in that phase where she couldn't keep awake long enough to hold a proper conversation. If they didn't have to leave Usagi was sure they wouldn't have and had been told as much by the others as well. It had not gone unnoticed how they wished to stay but work would not grant her father the time and Jade needed to be picked up from school regardless of anything else any of them wanted. Time stopped for no one and even Setsuna was held to it to a glaring degree... albeit more literally in the case of the time gates.

"How are you feeling?" Ikuko asked settling into the chair Michiru had been in when Usagi had finally woken up a few days ago. Kenji was just watching for the moment. Jade was in the living room with Haruka and Michiru since the general consensus was try not to overwhelm Usagi with too many people at once. Kenji would go out into the living room later to let Jade come in to talk for a bit. But for now it was the three of them.

"Just really tired." Usagi admitted after a moment. "Which according to everyone else is completely normal." If a bit frustrating at times. It felt like she needed help with every little thing again. While she appreciated that everyone was willing to help. It made her feel guilty that she needed this much help. It didn't feel like she could do much of anything on her own right now.

"At least its finally over. Now things can finally start getting back to normal." Kenji said relief clear in his tone. This whole event had lead to the past year feeling like the longest eight months of his life as Usagi kept having to run into danger. At least that part was finally over. Though how 'normal' that could be now was hard to say. After all even with the Dark Kingdom defeated there were still remnants that would forever remain of what had happened. The biggest being the impending adoption of Jade.

"It will be nice not to have to worry about the next youma showing up after all these months." Usagi said giving a small smile. She was looking forward to having some real peace and quiet for the first time in months. It was over. Finally over. No more dark kingdom. No more youma. It was over. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. She could go back to being just Usagi again, but she was sure what that meant was something different than it was before. She wasn't sure how it would work, but it had to so it would. Of that she was sure at least. One good thing came out of this. She had friends and was a different and maybe better person than before, and some of the people she knew were unawakened sailor senshi were still peacefully living there lives. Rei and Makoto certainly deserved as much.

"Do you need any help with anything or do the girls…?" Ikuko asked. She knew how difficult those first few months after the quake had been. Between losing Shingo, nearly losing Usagi, and everything else that had happened in the meantime and having so much time in the hospital she knew some of the ins and outs of what was going on. Outside of the various tests Ikuko had some knowledge about care and how to administer it if needed.

"I'm okay. I just need to sleep. I'll be alright mom. I'm sorry to make you worry." Usagi smiled tiredly at her mother. At least she wasn't physically hurt this time. Once she stopped being so sleepy all the time, she imagined she would be fine. "I don't know about the others, but I'm alright now Mom." Better than she had been in a while with the weight of the Dark Kingdom no longer weighing down on her and threatening her loved ones, the world, or herself, it was so surreal. That thing they had defeated could have and would have enslaved the world- had even done so during the Silver Millennium. Had done so to more than just Earth. That was a tad overwhelming to think about but... she was alright now. She just didn't want her parents to have to worry so much anymore, and she wondered if it was the lifted burden for them that it was for herself.

As draining as what she had done was, the path to recovering from doing so was understandable as it was frustrating. It served as a reminder that the consequences could have been much more however, and that her life could have and would have been the price without Beryls help both in weakening Metalia by breaking free of her and by attacking her and adding her own energy into the attack that resulted into Metalia's destruction.

Eventually even with all the avoiding they tried to do of it they had to eventually address the elephant in the room. Beryl's healing. Setsuna's prolonged absence, as she dealt with Beryl, could only be written off so many times of course. While at first Usagi might not notice it due to the amount of time she was sleeping she noticed now.

Partly they had been avoiding telling Usagi about how Beryl had been able to be rescued from the other because no one was sure how to really explain it, and part was because nobody knew how Usagi would take it. Logically Usagi seemed like the type to not hold it against Beryl, but this was such a strange situation that it was hard to say for certain and without knowing who ordered the DD girls to do what they did nobody wanted to test those waters while Usagi was still so weak. It was still a bit of a shock to the others, who had a bit more time to process it, to think the once leader of your enemy was the equivalent of Setsuna's wife in modern terms and could be pulled out from under Metallia's grasp in the first place.

"Beryl could be healed…huh" Usagi said more to herself after they had finished explaining. It certainly wasn't something she would have ever thought possible. Then again if someone had told her a couple of months ago that there were some former Elysian residents that had been turned into youma she probably wouldn't have believed that either. Speaking of which she really hoped they had managed to rescue all they could before the battle in the throne room. Deep down Usagi had a feeling that some had been missed.

"Something was triggered in Beryl when Metallia tried to attack Naru." Michiru explained. Naru's presence that evening was still something she could decide to be grateful for or not. Without knowing what could have happened sans Naru it was hard to say if this made it alright... which made Michiru and everyone else feel terrible. For Setsuna's sake it was even if she seemed to think she would have managed without one of her bond-mates.

"So love defeated her." Usagi said more to herself. The last few moments of that fight felt like a blur. She hadn't really stopped to think about what she was about to do or the possible consequences at that point. Now that she had, while she didn't regret it Usagi knew how close of a call that had been. She had been worn down when they had reached the throne room. Even Shingo had mentioned that what she had done was dangerous and could easily have not survived attacking Metallia like she had. Yet Usagi had survived and, as strange as it was to think of, someone who had been trying to kill herself and the other senshi had been the reason she survived by working with her to save Naru.

Usagi shook her head after a moment before speaking softly. "I think I understand. If that had been Shingo nothing would have stopped me. I wish I had that chance to begin with but we were ripped away back then during the tsunami. If I had a second chance to protect him I would die before I failed him again." Usagi's voice broke a bit and if she had tears then nobody pointed them out. She never would have thought that she would have found something in common with Beryl but stranger things had happened since becoming senshi.

There was still a degree of weariness Usagi felt towards Beryl. Who had ordered the DD Girls to go after her? Had it been Beryl? It shamed her to think, but Usagi kept wondering who ordered them to do what they had done. For Setsuna's sake, she was going to learn to live with it. If the answer was Beryl, she didn't think she could handle knowing and not disrupt Setsuna's happiness.

"Beryl could be healed?!" Minako about yelled in surprise when the news of what had happened was finally explained to her. Usagi, once she was recovered enough that she wasn't constantly falling asleep almost constantly, had decided to reach out to Minako to get her opinion on some of the things they had learned, trying to understand better how Beryl had got the way she was and what had happened that led to 'fixing' Beryl. After all who better to explain how things got messed up via the soul bonds than the senshi of love herself?

Luna hadn't been particularly happy about her deciding to contact Minako now, versus maybe waiting for Minako to return from England, but Usagi could only wait so long to understand the situation. Especially knowing that Beryl could be walking around Japan Usagi needed to talk to the other girl and find out what she knew. As much as she didn't want to think of Beryl as a threat any longer…she needed some assurance. In this case, it felt like the best assurance she could get came from Minako.

Calming down for a second Minako frowned. "That's unexpected." Harmonia hadn't known much about Beryl's past self in her previous life other than that she existed from what she could tell and one meeting that her memory was so bad on she wasn't sure what it had been about. Minako guessed it wasn't a complete stretch that Beryl had been another victim of the Dark Kingdom, albeit at least somewhat willingly at some point. She had been the second in command of the Dark Kingdom for a reason.

"According to Setsuna, someone tampered with Beryl's soul bonds to herself and Endymion. Michiru said that could drive someone pretty far off the deep end." Usagi explained.

There was silence for a beat before Minako spoke. "Setsuna and Beryl were bonded?" Something about that didn't surprise her as much as it should have. Like she had always known and had forgotten about it somehow and Usagi speaking of it was what brought it back, yet it was still a bit hard to wrap her head around at first. Hm... she wondered.

Usagi nodded before realizing Minako couldn't see her and speaking up. "That was a surprise to us all."

Minako frowned for a moment thinking over what she could remember from Harmonia's mothers' lectures on soul bonds in her past life. "That could explain it. Michiru is right. You don't tamper with soul bonds of any kind. She is not the first person that would have been driven to extremes by it. The entire solar system used to be filled with tiny kingdoms as divided as earth. The old kingdoms before the Silver Alliance made mistakes, many involving soul bonds and messing with them, and many fell. The ramifications were well documented, death being the least and kindest of what can happen." Minako admitted. This might explain where Kunzite had vanished off to again recently. He hadn't been seen in a while. Not since right around the time they had gone into the Dark Kingdom. "Surprised this didn't come up before now…"

"Setsuna said that she had been lead to believe that there was no way to save her. Beryl being saved seemed impossible until that is what happened." Usagi explained quietly. "Setsuna has a very kind heart. She wouldn't have wanted us to know and would have suffered in silence. I think she would have gone back to the time gates and maybe disappeared."

"The heartbreak." Minako said quietly to herself. To see the slow descent of your bond mate and not be able to do anything to stop it. To have the knowledge that nothing you could do would ultimately make a difference. She may dislike Beryl and all she stood for before this happened, but she was glad that two soul mates had managed to find a happy ending in spite of that. "I can't begin to imagine what that feels like." It was something she hoped she would avoid in time when she finally found her own bond mate. Minako had enough of her memories of at this point to know it wasn't Kunzite. She had been bonded long before the Moon and Terran courts had started to interact. Beyond that, she didn't know much else let alone his or her identity.

"If you removed a seal then there was a lot more at play than people simply choosing to join the Dark Kingdom. Keep an eye on her just in case I'm wrong but I think Setsuna's correct in that she is no longer poses a threat." Minako said going over her memories once again. If it really had been a tampered soul bond that had driven Beryl to the Dark Kingdom then removing the source of the tampering would resolve the problem.

"We can trust her then?" Usagi asked. Seeing Minako's raised eyebrows. "We'll trust her as well as someone could when they have tried to kill you?"

"If she wasn't in control of her actions then I guess so." Minako finally said after a moment of thought. "After everything that's happened with the Dark Kingdom, I wouldn't trust her completely."

"I'm not sure if I could even I wanted to." Usagi admitted after a moment. From what few memories she had Usagi knew Beryl to have been decent in that life before she joined the Dark Kingdom. Maybe with the passage of time, she could get more comfortable with Beryl again, but it was going to take a long while for that to happen in this life.

"Still not sure who ordered the DD girls?" Minako surmised. A lot of the hesitation about trusting anyone who had been from the Dark Kingdom had to come from that.

"No." Usagi admitted. "I had one chance to find out for sure, but I was too focused on other things to think about it before we dusted them with the Sailor Planet attack."

"They're gone?" Minako asked after a beat of silence. She hadn't heard that the youma that had been responsible for so many nightmares the last few weeks had been destroyed.

"Dust." Usagi confirmed her voice barely above a whisper. It was a relief to know they were no longer threats to others.

"Finally." Minako said relief that Usagi herself had been feeling since they had dusted the youma seeping into her own tone. Knowing that those youma would endanger no one any longer would make sleeping a bit easier at night. It wouldn't completely drive away the nightmares but it was a step in the right direction at least.

Usagi had quickly gotten used to having someone around when she woke up. Usually multiple someones. She felt bad that she was distracting from what the others needed to do. It hadn't taken long for to realize there wasn't any amount of insisting that she would be fine could get any of them to leave.

Outside of Haruka and Michiru being a near constant presence, since she had woken up, Luna hadn't really left her side. She had left a few times Usagi supposed but not many and not for long. Luna fussed over her incessantly.

No one was entirely sure what the Queen had done in the final moments of the Moon Kingdom to defeat, or rather seal, the Dark Kingdom. None of the people alive now had that kind of information. Well, almost nobody. It was possible either Luna or Setsuna could know, but Luna didn't remember much about it, and Setsuna was bound by vows so even if she did know she might not tell them anyway, and Usagi found she wasn't against that. If it was anything like what they had seen... she wasn't sure she wanted to know anyway. They were gone. No seal, just gone now. She didn't need to know how to defeat a dead enemy anymore.

Setsuna was probably the member of the group Usagi she saw the least during these days spent regaining her strength. Usagi missed her while she was gone, but she understood that she had a lot she was trying to help and deal with. It would be for a while until things started to smooth out with Beryl and Usagi and everyone else and Setsuna needed to handle that right now and help the woman acclimate and Usagi imagined she would be much the same if she had come close to losing either Michiru or Haruka. She was hoping things would be mostly back to normal before school started again; otherwise, it was going to be a rough September.

Naru's time was split between wanting to see her friend and helping Masato out with all the rescues from the Dark Kingdom. They hadn't even really begun to try to explain that for them, the world as they knew it was gone. It would have to be addressed soon. The Kinmoku contingent was supposed to arrive in about a week to pick up any people like Countess Rose who were choosing to go home rather than resettle on Earth. The remaining people that had hailed from outside the system needed to be identified and told of the situation first. There was a concern that there might be some non Terrans or non Kinmokuans in the mix who would want to return home but would not realize home had changed and if they wanted to be returned to the places they had hailed from before Kinmoku or if they, kami forbid, had been from neither place at all... it was need to know. Kinmoku's crown princess, Princess Kakyuu, had thankfully taken it in stride and had been understanding of the situation. There was no guarantee, with a different royal family, that they would have the same reaction.

"You could have easily died Usagi. It wouldn't be the first time a member of the Lunarian Royal Family was lost due to overusing the crystal." Luna lectured as she fussed over Usagi one day while Usagi was laying in bed looking out the window at the city one evening. Overuse of the crystal was how the Queen had died in the end after all. Sealing the Dark Kingdom away had used most of her strength. Luna still wasn't sure how she had managed to send the people to the future. "Exhaustion like this is completely normal and to be expected." Luna sad shaking her head slightly. She just was relieved that it hadn't all turned out worse.

"I wish I could get up. Sometimes I think it is great to be able to nap whenever I want, but this is different. I hate being forced and it is like I am a prisoner of my own body. My evil body. So evil forcing me to spend so much time in bed even sitting up in it makes my butt hurt from all the time I spend in bed." Usagi resorted to whining just a little bit while chewing on her lip. At least she wasn't in a hospital room this time.

"Reminds you of after the quake?" Naru pipped in as she entered the room, clearly having heard them. Usagi nodded her assent to this. Naru, was of course right. While there were definite differences, there were also similarities too. Enough Usagi thought Luna was probably right that the crystal had saved her during the Tsunami. Even if she wasn't out quite as long, it drove home some things- like Luna's insistence trying to save her brother might not have worked even if she gave her own life doing so. Keeping her alive took less from the crystal than saving someone else and wasn't that a sore spot for her in her heart. To know and have it be driven home so thoroughly how helpless she really was, even with the crystal. "I'm sorry Usagi. I shouldn't have stepped through." Naru apologized sincerely. While she hadn't regretted her decision at the time... hindsight was 20/20. Whether or not she actually ended up helping, in the end, was irrelevant when it could have also caused her best friends' death. They had, after all, no way of knowing Beryl would react in such a way to her presence and she wasn't really useful in these things. They could have died trying to protect her and distractions like that, as she had been told numerous times since then, could have cost all of there lives. Not just Usagi's. Usagi likely would have been the first, however, and she was the one that would have stung the most. Her best friend dying because she had felt useless and got it in her head to help where she was utterly useless. It made Naru feel even more useless than before just thinking about it and very very stupid. She wished very much that she was stronger and not a burden so that she really could help and so that doing so or trying to do so would not be the opposite as it was now in those sorts of situations. Maybe if she asked Haruka, she would teach her to throw a punch so she could at least punch bullies if they got too out of hand. Worth a try.

Usagi shook her head. "We've been over this Naru. As stupid as I am I would have done the same. Could you imagine me tripping over my feet trying to help you every step of the way? I couldn't do what you do Naru." She hated that Naru had put herself in danger like that, but it had at least resulted in the end of the Dark Kingdom. So for how stupid it had been at least one good thing had come of the situation. Also... she really could imagine herself having done exactly what Naru had done from the get-go and not being able to do what Naru had done. Sit back and wait. Usagi had never been one to be able to do that when her friends were in trouble, even when there was nothing she could do but add another body to be beat up. She could easily imagine that Naru was much more mature and patient than herself to have dealt with all the feelings she must have been holding in all that time and could easily forgive her knowing she couldn't have lasted so long as Naru did before doing exactly that herself. Stupid or not. Naru was smarter than her, so maybe that was why. Usagi didn't really know.

Usagi herself was sometimes impulsive, not particularly patient, and generally made very stupid split-second decisions. It usually worked out for her but Usagi could count on one hand the things she had done and said that were on par with what Naru had done trying to help and could say with certainty she would have done so even if she wasn't Sailor Moon. Naru had a fair bit more self control than she herself did and it was more surprising how long it took than anything else. Naru was not faint of heart and she often protected Usagi in many situations. Only a few months ago Naru would have still been doing so. They protected one another when they could but Usagi was glad she could now protect Naru more too. Naru, she had never told anyone, was like the sister she never really had and losing her would truly have struck her not unlike losing Shingo. Naru was deeply precious to Usagi.

"Just try not to do that again in the future. You don't have senshi powers Naru and you could have been gravely injured just being there. I don't know what you were thinking." Luna added. Before getting up with a stretch. "I need to call Artemis to discuss something, so I'll leave you to be for now." Mostly she was leaving them to give some room for a moment, but she did actually need to talk to Artemis, see if they had been able to find Kunzite who should have been healed like the other generals in the fall of the Dark Kingdom.

Naru waited for a moment for Luna to leave. She needed to talk to Usagi about something. She wasn't entirely sure if she was ready to broach the subject with Luna. The thing was involved Naru who was starting to realize they couldn't keep this under the covers much longer from her. Her mother was growing suspicions over her daughters activities. "I don't think I can avoid telling Mom about what's been going on anymore." Naru admitted after she was sure Luna was gone.

"Surprised you haven't told her you're dating him yet." Usagi said referencing Naru's romance with Masato first. If those two were as serious as it seemed, telling Naru's Mom who she was dating was kind of inevitable. It was going to happen eventually — no way around it.

"That's not exactly an easy conversation to start. Yeah hi mom I'm dating this guy and by the way he is also magical and we were married in our past life so please don't disown me if I stay with him even if you end up hating him!" Naru pointed out. You couldn't exactly go up to someone and announce you were dating someone several years older... and to tac on the other weirdness as well? They'd left normal in the dust ages ago. With her own romantic tendencies at time she wouldn't past her Mom to play it off not realizing Naru was actually being serious for once. Naru had been kinda boy crazy.

"I understand." Usagi agreed this was going to be an interesting conversation. "Luna is going to have kittens when she finds out you want to tell your mom."

"Yeah. Its a miracle we didn't have a conversation while she was still living there." Naru pointed out with a sigh. They had been careful not to let anything noticeable happen. All things considered... both girls were surprised the conversation between her and her Mom wasn't happening sooner.

Naru had a right to be nervous about telling her Mom about everything had happened. But neither of them had really anticipated the reaction they actually got. "Really Naru. You two may think you were sneaky, but I wasn't born yesterday. I may not have understood everything that was going on, but it wasn't hard to figure out something was amiss. That cat of yours isn't nearly as subtle as she thinks she is Usagi." Naru's Mom addressed the last part at her. "I am your mother, Naru. There is only so much you can hide from me, and I figured you were smart enough to ask for help if you needed it. I only brought this up now because of how routinely I've been seeing that millionaire around the neighborhood with you. Whom I'm guessing is involved in all of this somehow?"

"You might want to sit down. It's a long story Mrs Osaka." Usagi admitted after a moment. They couldn't just make a quick pass over the topic. Considering who Masato was and who Naru was to him.

They explained some things and glossed over plenty enough but in the end, they had explained that Naru and Usagi both were reincarnations and that Masato was effectively her soulmate and in love with her now as he had been...

"This is a bit more then I even realized." Naru's Mom admitted after a moment after they had finished telling the story. The very long story. Hours passed and Usagi was sure Luna would be looking for them by now and probably the others as well. Sure she had known more then what her daughter had realized but the whole thing with the Silver Millennium... she hadn't known that. Or about soul bindings. "When you say you two were bonded during your previous lives you mean….?" She didn't remember hearing this being talked about when Luna still was a member of the household.

"It means we were married in a previous life." Naru admitted with clear reluctance. This was the part she was dreading. How her Mom was going to take knowing she was dating and had been married to Masato. "I was a bit older in that lifetime when we first met if I understand the timing correctly. Not by much but still older."

Naru had complete faith(almost?) her mother would take all the fighting about as well as anyone... but her daughter dating...? Her daughter wanting her approval for an even remotely serious relationship? With an older man? Many mothers would jump on it with him being rich and all but not Naru's mom. Nope. Naru's mom didn't care about money. That made this scarier than anything else... although her figuring a good portion out on her own made some explanations a little easier at least.

"Naru's past self died and was reincarnated in the present day. Masato was brainwashed, possessed, and controlled by an evil demon named Metallia between the fall of Elysian and up until recent present day. If he had died and been reborn like we had him and the other generals would probably be closer to our age." Usagi explained. Though maybe mentioning that Masato was technically a few thousand years old wasn't the best idea. That just widened the age gap. Damn her mouth! "They're literal soul mates. One way or another they would have found each other again." Or at least that's what she understood from her conversations with Minako. Oh please let Naru's mom understand! You could only keep soul mates apart for so long before they somehow found each other again.

"Well, you could have picked worse people." Naru's Mom said after a moment of thought. A handsome, rich man who was apparently destined for her daughter? It might not be a perfect scenario with the age gap, but there were certainly a lot of worse ones to have landed in. They had both told her multiple times he couldn't hurt her because of the soul bindings... that it would be as hurting himself and that was something; she had always feared for her Naru what with her... tastes in men. Though this did shed that in a new light.

"Mom!" Naru said flushing a bright red. Though that sounded oddly like a form of approval.

"I won't say I'm comfortable with the idea. Give me time." Naru's Mom said after a moment. It was such an odd idea to think that her daughter was technically married already. To an older man. Even if they weren't doing much on the married front at the moment, thankfully. "So were you bonded or married or whatever it was during that time too then Usagi?" Naru's Mom asked turning her attention to Usagi for a moment.

"I was bonded." Usagi admitted after a moment. "I don't know to who." Looking back maybe she should have released Setsuna from those vows but not causing damage along the way was tricky when releasing vows. She wanted to get Setsuna out of all the unnecessary vows but she was going to have to figure out how to do that. Finding out how might require another trip to the Moon now that she thought about it. Something she wasn't particularly enjoying the thought of after the near argument over Jade and the others the first time was talking to the old Queen's hologram.

That caused Naru's Mom to frown before asking. "How come Naru and Masato know who they were bonded too, but you don't?"

"Different circumstances. Masato started regaining his memories because of her from the first time they met in this era and sought myself out to be rid of his connection to the Dark Kingdom so they couldn't hurt her through him or vice versa. He and thus she by extension knew from the start who they were to each other. Myself? I have no clue who I'm destined for. There's a chance I've already found whomever it is but someone... tried to erase and make us forget back then for... convenience. I do not yet know who they are again." Usagi admitted with a reluctant sigh. She would love to know with 100 percent certainty. She had some suspicions. She didn't want to ruin what was there now based on speculation.

"Artemis thinks they found a lead on Kunzite's location via Minako's contact in Interpol." Luna explained, they were discussing what was going on with the final member of the team, Minako. Usagi was currently out with Naru sitting in a rather private corner of crown arcade during a time of day things were quiet. This was her first real excursion since the defeat of the Dark Kingdom. Nothing too big or over the top since Usagi still got easily tired though it was starting to improve. The girls had been right; Luna hadn't liked the idea of telling yet another person about who the girls were. However, even Luna, with her clear and vocal reluctance (i.e.: protests) had to admit that this wasn't a topic they could avoid forever with Naru's mother. Naru was almost as involved with the senshi activities as the senshi themselves at this point. Especially with her being tied to one of the generals it really had only been a matter of time before Naru had to tell her mother what was going on.

On the topic of Minako, with the Dark Kingdom finally gone the primary reason behind her staying in England for all this time was gone with it. "Once they can track him down, they'll probably get the last pieces into place before moving back to Japan." Kunzite's unknown location was one of the few things keeping Minako in England. Zoisite had confirmed he was still alive and with the Dark Kingdom now gone he should no longer be a threat to anyone. Well maybe at least not normal civilians Luna corrected herself after a moment.

"How in the world does she know someone from Interpol anyway?" Haruka asked raising an eyebrow. That seemed a bit unusual but then again due to most of their line of work previously they all had some unusual connections in some form except for maybe Usagi.

Luna's tail swished for a moment in thought. "I'm honestly not sure. There were other more pressing matters at the time then trying to figure out how Minako knew an Interpol officer, so I've never asked." It definitely had to be an interesting story. A Japanese teenager probably wouldn't normally make that kind of contact. Even as Sailor Venus it was still an unusual contact to have.

"I just; it's still hard to think that it's finally over." Luna admitted after a moment. In the present day, the whole Dark Kingdom affair had taken almost a year from when she had first reawakened after the fall of the Silver Alliance to the day Usagi and Beryl had wiped out the Dark Kingdom. Then you counted in the entire time since the Dark Kingdom had first shown up during the Silver Millennium and well it had been a long time since she felt like there wasn't an immediate threat.

"A storm can blow in from the sea suddenly and without warning. None of us expected it to end that night." Michiru agreed. Going back to civilian lives without the cloud of the Dark Kingdom hanging over them was nice. Going back to normalcy was going to take time for all of them, her and Setsuna the most since they had been standing against the Dark Kingdom arguably the longest of the entire group. Part of her wondered if that part of her would ever really switch off now that it had been turned on. "Its natural that it would take a while for any of us to relax." If ever.

"Exactly. I know it's over. And I know I should be able to relax after all this time. Its over, we have no more enemy to face. I guess part of it is habit at this point. However another part of it well its just-" Luna broke off with a sigh for a moment before continuing. It wasn't just the immediate future she was particularly concerned with at the moment. "It's just, I want to believe the fighting is over and we won't have to worry about anything..." Luna trailed off. She truly did want to believe that their fighting was over for good, but she wasn't entirely sure if that was entirely realistic. At most she could see herself hoping for a solid good few months of peace. Maybe a few years if they got lucky enough. Eternal peace? Never happen.

"I honestly don't remember much in the way of invasions when we were growing up on the Outer Rim." Michiru noted a frown crossing her face for a moment. Invasions weren't exactly a small-scale thing, she would have thought an invasion, especially one that would have needed to get past the Outer Rim defenses would have been something they remembered. The biggest conflict outside of the one with the Dark Kingdom that she could remember was the one that had sent Serenity to Neptune. That strange rebellion in the Inner planets.

"Things were different back then. That being said there weren't really that many to speak of during that period that I can recall when you girls were growing up. It's more from a historical perspective that I'm speaking. Your period was fairly quiet before the invasion of the Dark Kingdom outside of the rebellion." Luna said shaking her head. Partly in thanks due to the outposts. Sure, the outposts had been far from foolproof. Things still managed to get through on occasion. Otherwise, the Dark Kingdom may have never been able to take root on Earth. Or at least that's where she assumed Metallia had come from. In all honesty, Metallia's origins were unknown and now would forever be a mystery.

Still during the time the girls had been alive most of the threats had come from within the system. The two biggest examples of that being the Inner Rebellion when the girls were much younger. And then Earth's citizens attacking the Moons. Sure, that had been started by the Dark Kingdom but if there hadn't been something there to build off of, arguably, the Moon Kingdom would never have fallen.

"Earth did manage to survive a few thousand years without any of us outside of Setsuna there to defend it." Michiru reminded her. She guessed there was a remote possibility that they had been reincarnated at some point in between and it had been forgotten. "Maybe after the Silver Millennium outside invaders lost interest?"

"That is true and that may be possible." Luna agreed after a moment. Maybe she was over thinking it, the Sol system had been much more of a target because of the power held within it. Not all systems were capable of holding planets with eleven different star seeds like their's could. Then you count the Ginzishou into it and there was a lot more to attract enemies back during the Silver Alliance.

However, then again, maybe Earth had been safe because the Senshi had been able to slumber until the Dark Kingdom's seal had broken, which brought with its own questions. Had there been no invasions because the senshi had been slumbering or had them been no invasions because of the fact that with the Silver Alliance gone the Sol System had no longer been the powerhouse it had once been and outside interest had dropped off?

"If something does show up, hopefully, it won't be anytime soon. Usagi's in no condition to be going into a fight right now." Haruka said shaking her head. Usagi was improving steadily the further they got out from the fight. However, there was still a way to go before she was back to her normal. The idea that there might be another enemy down the road was one no one really liked to entertain. But it had to be at least thought over even if for a brief moment. However, the idea that one might show up before Usagi was fully recovered from the events of a couple of weeks ago was one that didn't settle well with her at least. It would be safest to have her not fight if something did rear its head. The question though was would Usagi allow that if the situation came into being?

"I'm not entirely sure if we will have a say in the manner of timing if it does happen again." Luna noted. Sure, it would be the most optimal to have another enemy show up once Usagi was fully recovered. It would be what she definitely preferred. But realistically? They couldn't count on that possibly being the situation.

After all the talks of what had happened with the fight in the Dark Kingdom came the realization that Minako's time in England was coming to an end. There were no more youma to fight, the last of them would have been wiped out with the fall of the Dark Kingdom.

With all of this came an arguably more interesting task. Attempting to find Kunzite. Minako and Artemis were in agreement with the Dark Kingdom gone any threat he should pose was long gone. With Beryl being healed and Zoisite having now fully abandoned the Dark Kingdom any remnants of the part of the general that had given them trouble and forced them to remain in England should be long gone. That didn't necessarily make things easier. It was hard to say if he remembered anything of the present day. If this was more like the Zoisite situation, then they were bound to have problems.

Eventually thanks in part to Katarina, the Interpol officer who worked with Sailor V during Minako's time in England, keeping an ear out they did eventually find Kunzite wandering a bit lost and confused on the eastern side of London. Not somewhere Minako would have expected to find the former Dark Kingdom general but at least they had found him without an extreme amount of difficulty. "Harmonia." He greeted as her and Artemis walked up.

"Good. You remember me. That simplifies things a bit." Minako said relaxing a bit. Though they might not be entirely out of the woods yet, it was hard to tell. It wasn't like he had ever found out who she actually was when he had been still serving the Dark Kingdom. The good thing was that he hadn't gotten himself hurt. "Do you know where you are or how you got here?"

"I know I'm in the city of London in the country of England. I know this is a different time and place than Elysian. That is, I am confused." Kunzite admitted wincing slightly at the end. He had been trying to sort out his memories since the day everything had suddenly changed. He found himself free of the connection he had once had with Beryl and Metallia. Kunzite wasn't at all sure what had happened, but he had a feeling the dark kingdom had been defeated. He wouldn't miss it. He was looking forward to seeing Zoisite soon. "I must admit some confusion on the current situation. I do remember joining the Dark Kingdom; I do remember being banished here for some reason by Beryl. I am less clear on other details."

"You might want to get comfortable; this is going to be a long story." Artemis said with a sigh. "We'll fill you in with what we know. But you'll have to probably wait until we're back in Japan to get more concrete answers. Your fellow generals will be better to fill you in on the situation. We can only tell you so much."

One of the first things Usagi did once she was feeling well enough again to have the conversation, was talking with Mamoru. Well maybe first wasn't the best way to put it because it wasn't exactly the first but close enough. The conversation was bound to be awkward, no matter how she tried to tackle it, so she had postponed it for about as long as she could get away with doing, but eventually, Usagi realized they needed to talk about where things stood as of this moment.

They were, as Usagi found out, in different positions on figuring out the reality of their situations. Somehow or another, maybe in the magic of that night she wasn't entirely sure, but whatever lock that had been put on his memories about who his actual true bondmates were had been undone. He knew Setsuna and Beryl were bound to him and he to them, while she still found herself completely lost on who her own bondmates were.

Mamoru hadn't really done anything since then other then a few short conversations with Setsuna and Beryl. She had a feeling he wasn't doing anything at the moment due to the conflicting memories of being together with Serenity and the conflicting feelings. In order for both of them to move on, him to his actual bond mates and her to trying to find her own bond mates, they needed to talk this over.

"The only thing I know for sure at the moment is that us forgetting what we had before had something to do with the Queen." Usagi finally admitted after a moment. "I wish I could tell you more."

"I guess I at least know who my bond mates are supposed to be. Even if this is going to be really awkward." Mamoru commented with a frown. Even if she had been being controlled this was a situation that was going to take time to smooth itself out and get used to. "Do none of the rest of you really not know?"

"Not a clue and its infuriating." Usagi confirmed running a hand through her bangs in frustration before adding. "Well Setsuna might know who the rest of us are bonded to but if she does, she hasn't said who it is yet." Usagi said after a moment of thought. Maybe it was though vows thing again. Then again, even if she released Setsuna from them who knew if she would give her a straight answer?

"Kind of surprised Luna doesn't know somehow." Mamoru commented thinking back to the few times he had some form of encounter with the cat. She would seem the most likely to know after Setsuna herself.

Usagi let out a small snort at that. "Oh yeah she definitely doesn't know. You should have seen the look on her face when I told her I had no romantic feelings towards you. I know I won't be forgetting it anytime soon."

"Priceless?" Mamoru asked raising an eyebrow with a grin.

"Yes." She had been too absorbed and confused at the time to really appreciate Luna's reaction. Now that she had moved past some of that it was kind of funny to look back at.

"So, about the twins…" Mamoru began completely unsure how to continue. How do you even begin to address this kind of topic?

Usagi picked up thankfully what he was indirectly trying to ask. "You don't want to know." No. He definitely didn't want to know what happened.

"I think they were my bondmates." Usagi said after a moment. It seemed like it was most likely that Serenity's children were from someone else and not Endymion. Who the other parent(s) were probably depended most on when Serenity had gotten pregnant with the twins, a piece of information neither of them had currently. His lack of surprise echoed her own lack of surprise at that.

"Considering what we do know of how things were back then it wouldn't be that much of a shock. We were more likely to destroy a bed to count the feathers than to do anything that could make babies." Mamoru said with a shrug. If things had been perfect maybe he would have been a father. But they both had been involved with other people, so the possibility was there. "We might have an issue though. Contracts to produce an heir weren't that uncommon back in those times. Who knows with all this strange magic in place if that exists if the contract still holds." Mamoru realized after thinking for a moment.

Usagi paled considerably at that thought. She really didn't want to think about the idea that her having been Serenity might mean she had to bear Mamoru's children. She wouldn't be shocked if there was some sort of contract her mother had signed her into back in the day. Guess she was going to have to make a trip to the Moon sooner than later no matter how much she really didn't want to go at the moment. "Can that kind of thing even be enforced considering we're reincarnations?"

Mamoru frowned not entirely sure. "It's hard to say. If we were anyone else the answer would almost certainly be no but we're not anyone else so who knows at this point. We are expected to be the prince and princess we were then so Luna might know the answer to that question."

"Luna still doesn't trust her memories and I don't blame her. Two options: Setsuna and the old archive. And I'll tell you the last conversation I had with the archival footage was not one I would like to repeat." Usagi grumbled slightly. If she had to talk to the archived version of the Queen then she would.

"I would have thought with your memories that conversation wouldn't have been overly difficult?" Mamoru said a bit surprised raising an eyebrow. He didn't have a lot of memories of the Queen outside of some formal events.

"It should have been. Let's just say I get what Serenity meant when she said her mother was very set in her ways." Usagi grumbled even further. The archive hadn't even seemed to want to consider the idea that Jade or others like her might be just innocent in all the affairs of what had happened during the Moon Kingdoms fall. "I wouldn't be surprised if she lied about there being one to get us to produce an heir together and, no offense Mamoru, but the idea of having sex with you makes me want to throw up."

Mamoru waved off the concern. "None taken." The feeling was mutual. While he was still trying to sort out everything with Setsuna and Beryl, he was fairly clear on where he stood on what he wanted out of any kind of relationship with Usagi. Sex and heirs definitely weren't part of it.

"How did the conversation with Mamoru go?" Michiru asked a few hours later sitting down by Usagi on the couch. Mamoru had left a little while ago, with him and Usagi being fairly content on where they stood at the moment. Eventually, they were going to have to address the issue that was whether or not an heir contract was in place, but for the moment they were going to let it just be as is.

"Surprisingly well all things considered." Usagi answered. When she realized she needed to talk to Mamoru to clear the air on things, she hadn't been sure what to expect. Best case scenario had been almost exactly what had happened. Worst case scenario was that Mamoru had still been mostly influenced by the magic that had played such a large hand in the Moon Kingdom's downfall and... she didn't imagine that having gone so well at all. The only way it could have been better is if Mamoru had somehow been able to identify who her own bondmates were. They hadn't been that lucky, but it definitely could have been worse. If Endymion had known, which still wasn't clear, Mamoru either didn't remember or if he did he hadn't gotten to the point of processing it yet. "We're on the same page at least. Mamoru knows who his bondmates are and we have no interest in one another in that way at all... though there are some concerns about what the Queen may or may not have done for the sake of the throne that could force us to do... something." Usagi made a face and turned green. Because if one of those contracts did exist Usagi seriously doubted the Queen did it for any other reason then for personal gains.

Michiru frowned at that picking up what Usagi was hinting at possibly. "An heir contract." It was the only thing she could really think of that they didn't already know about that would cause Usagi this much discomfort and disgust, already knowing she found the idea of sleeping with Mamoru to be utterly repulsive to begin with. "Do you really think she might have done that?" She would have thought that Serenity being married beforehand would prevent such a thing but it was impossible to say based on her own lack of knowledge of soul bonds. Minako was still the one who could best answer that question and it was still early enough in the morning in England she doubted Minako was awake yet.

Usagi chewed on her lip for a moment before replying. "I don't know. The Queen made me forget my soul bonded mates so she could force me to bond with someone else she did the same thing to after trapping one of his bondmates with her duty to the time gates. Would you put it past her?" Usagi asked raising an eyebrow. She still hadn't told them all the problems that had existed between the princess and the mother but at this point it wasn't exactly a secret either. Was kinda obvious with the whole mind wipe and forced marriage thing.

"No." Michiru agreed, she could not put it past the old moon queen either. For Usagi's and her bondmates' sake she hoped that nothing like that was in place. The fact that the Queen might do such a thing wouldn't be as much of a shock as it should have been, however, not with all they knew of her so far. Especially with some of her speculation that the Queen had so much of a hand, even indirectly, in the fall of her own kingdom thanks to her scheming.

"That could be a dangerous gamble." Haruka noted, piping up with a frown. What if there was some clause that stated Serenity needed to bear an heir by a certain age, or equivalent age? What could happen then? Could there be a magical backlash? Though then again if something hadn't happened by now…maybe nothing would happen?

"I know. We are planning to go to the moon and check the archives." Usagi said. Neither of them could really see a reason to address the issue at this very moment, however, nor was she in a hurry to face the digital replicant of her mother.

"You should probably head back to bed." Michiru said as Usagi gave a jaw-cracking yawn a moment later. That conversation had to have been an exhausting one, even in the best of circumstances. And considering Usagi, while fully on the road to recovery, was still not fully recovered from the incident at the Dark Kingdom the whole conversation would have been more draining then normal.

"I hate this." Usagi grumbled to herself. Though she found there was a bit of a strange sense of familiarity with this. Beyond that of just what she had experienced with the aftermath of the earthquake, though she wasn't entirely sure why this felt familiar at all. Usagi was beginning to suspect something similar had happened with Serenity when growing up on the Moon. Though the certainty let alone most of the details of what could have led to a similar situation were still escaping her at this point.

"Sometimes I wish we could chuck that stupid crystal in the ocean and not have to worry about it again." Haruka admitted grumbling slightly hand twitching slightly at the thought again at the idea of just wanting to get rid of the crystal so it couldn't cause any more trouble. She knew the crystal wasn't the cause of Usagi's problems but they seemed so centered around it that she wanted to chuck it. More then once she had been tempted to take the broach and store it somewhere Usagi couldn't easily find it. As much as she had begun to resent the crystal and wished they could just get rid of it she knew she couldn't.

"Haruka, I know it feels like it causes more trouble than its worth but I can't just get rid of it. Besides even with all it has done that's caused problems it has done a lot of good things too." Usagi reminded her.

Though she may never admit to the others…even Usagi had had her moments where she herself had wondered how good the crystal truly was. The crystal was a force to be reckoned with and she still found difficult to control at times and one slight wrong move with it... it was a lot of weight to carry. Especially having seen some of what it could do under better control with different intentions.

Usagi had found herself remembering some of the times Queen Serenity had used it in her daughter's presence quite a bit during the recovery. Wondering just how it seemed like the Queen never seemed to have problems that Usagi herself to struggle with.

"I know, it's just hard to see you like this every time you have to use it extensively. Can you just try and promise not to use it again?" Haruka said with a sigh. She knew that Usagi couldn't just get rid of the Ginzishou now, she wasn't even entirely sure why she had even suggested it. Maybe the frustration at having to see Usagi in such a state? However, she did know that much like her and Michiru's Sailor Crystals Usagi depended on the Ginzishou now that it had been awakened. That didn't mean she liked the danger it seemed to present every time Usagi had to tap into it. She knew what Luna kept saying, it was going to improve with time, but it never felt like it actually was.

"Haruka, please don't make me do a promise I might not be able to keep." Usagi said quietly. She wasn't going to try and make a promise that she was fairly certain that she wasn't going to be able to keep. Even if there was no Dark Kingdom to worry about, she wasn't sure if a situation where she might need the crystal might not arise. She just couldn't, wouldn't, stand by while others were hurt when she could help. She had promised herself no more Shingos, and she was going to fight to keep that promise.

Haruka looked both horrified and defeated, and Michiru looked no better, even as her hand reached for Haruka's shoulder.

"I can try. If I need it I cannot promise I will not use it, but I can promise I won't use it unless it is needed." Usagi finally added after a moment. She couldn't guarantee that she would never use the crystal again. The future was vast and held far too many unknowns as is. She could try and keep a promise of not using it unless needed, although she wasn't quite sure how comforting that was despite her intention.

Usagi knew the situation and dealing with the Kinmoku citizens was going to come up eventually. Of the ones they had found, there were at least a few keenly interested in going home. She felt it was partly her responsibility to deal with this situation. Usagi, at the suggestion of Luna, had asked them to wait a couple of days for a couple of reasons. One to let the others fully adjust to being non-youma again. Two to allow her recover some before having to face whoever the Kinmoku representatives were. Luna kept stressing she had to be poised and not have any obvious weaknesses, and Usagi was exhausted just thinking of it.

She couldn't help but dread the upcoming situation since it also meant maybe having to take on the identity of princess and it felt like she was putting on a mask more than anything else. Something she had no experience dealing with. Sure, she had done the training when she was in the Princess Program but practice and a real situation were two different things.

It just was all really overwhelming. She knew Luna kind of expected her to eventually come into her heritage and become Queen, even if she wasn't so sure she shared Luna's enthusiasm for that. But… her meeting a former ally wasn't the worse idea. Who knew what the future held they might end up needing more help someday as much as she didn't want to acknowledge that train of thought. There was always a possibility, as much as she wanted to deny it, that Metallia wouldn't be the last evil being she faced down in her lifetime.

"You know if we explained to them some of the situation they would probably understand." Michiru pointed out with a frown. Usagi was still getting easily tired which was to be expected after the events of the Dark Kingdom and playing an intermediary between the two groups shouldn't be too overly difficult if it came down to it.

"This is something I need to do." Usagi said shaking her head. "I just hope I don't mess up."

"I'm sure Setsuna said something to them about our unique situation." Michiru tried to reassure her. She at least hoped Setsuna had said something for all their sakes. Otherwise, this could go wrong no matter how hard Usagi tried. Learning something in one lifetime and implementing it in another was easier said than done. She had the most training and dealing with etiquette and proper manners due to her own upbringing, and even then this felt like this was out of her own depth as well. No matter how human these people looked, they were still aliens with their own customs. Advice couldn't be given easily here since what may apply here on Earth in Japan may not be excusable on Kinmoku. Wars had been fought over far less here on earth and history was full of such examples between countries and peoples here on earth. Michiru didn't want to think about that on a greater scale. It sounded like a bad American movie. "May want to ask Luna. She probably has the best idea of what to avoid."

A day later found the group at the park, as Sailor Moon shifted more than just a bit nervous as they waited for the group from Kinmoku to arrive to collect their citizens. There was a group of seven of them that they had found in the Dark Kingdom. While two of them had decided to remain on Earth and settle again into a new life most were choosing to return to Kinmoku rather than try to adjust for the third time. Their princess along with three of her senshi were coming to collect them. It was a bit nerve-wracking for Sailor Moon since even with coaching she still hadn't ever had to deal with anything formal like this that tied back to her previous life.

"Breathe kitten. It will be all right." Uranus reminded her standing next to her right-hand side. Sailor Moon's nervousness was understandable considering the situation. It wasn't going to do her any good if she passed out before the Kinmoku entourage arrived. "Remember Pluto explained the situation to them."

"I know that." Sailor Moon admitted. "But we're not just talking any dignitaries here we're talking dignitaries from an entirely different planet with different customs. What if I really mess up?" The longer she had to think on this the more nervous she seemed to get. Even if there wasn't royalty involved, they probably had different customs than Earth. What if she inadvertently doomed the planet by insulting someone without meaning to? What if smiling was frowned upon? What if-

"It will be fine Sailor Moon." Pluto said trying to assure her following the others attempts. The nerves weren't unwarranted, Serenity, even back in her day, had only been starting to take on more dignitary roles. Pluto had explained the situation to the Kinmokuans as well as one could. They weren't expecting someone who would be fully versed in politics and visiting diplomats.

"No more time to worry. They're here." Neptune noted seeing the streak of four lights across the sky that was signaling the arrivals of the Kinmoku envoy.

"Reincarnated. I was raised as an everyday girl in this life only found out who I was recently. Sometimes it still doesn't feel real." Sailor Moon admitted shaking her head. She was currently making small talk with the crown princess of Kinmoku, Princess Kakyuu as the group from Kinmoku got themselves oriented and prepared to make the trip home. She had known she was Princess Serenity for over two months now. Had known it was a possibility for even longer. It was hard to wrap her mind that she had once been set to inherit an empire of sorts. Might even still be expected to, to a certain extent.

"Regardless of being her in this life or another you were the leader who helped bring our lost people back to us. For that I'm glad." Kakyuu said with a small smile. She could tell the other girl wasn't so comfortable in the princess role. Pluto had warned her that this was a title the girl was very, very new too.

"I mean it was mostly Pluto and Luna who did the groundwork to get all of this done." Sailor Moon said shaking her head blushing more than slightly embarrassed. It hadn't really been her behind this. She had just approved Pluto's actions once she had told her of the situation. Nothing more nothing less. Pluto had been the one to figure out a way to contact Kinmoku. Something she wouldn't have known how even to get started. Though she guessed considering how she got about her status as Serenity at times her balking at stepping into this role wouldn't have been out there. At the very least denying someone the right to go home would have just felt wrong.

"Not everyone would have gone through the trouble to contact us. Especially after all this time." Kakyuu said shaking her head. Considering the Sol Senshi were starting from the ground up and only had a fraction of the technology that had existed during the Moon Kingdom it was admirable that they had gone through the trouble of trying to find a way to reach out at all.

Sailor Moon shook her head. "Regardless of it being difficult it was the right thing to do. It would have been wrong to keep them here." There had been some talk about what they would have done if they hadn't managed to contact Kinmoku. Setsuna had talked about possibly traveling to Kinmoku itself if it had come down to it. That wouldn't have been a real possibility for a while. Thankfully it hadn't been that complicated.

"Are those all of your senshi?" Sailor Moon asked trying to make more small talk than anything. As they waited for the final preps to be made for the Kinmokuans to take off again. It was a quick turn around trip for them. It made sense. Probably didn't want to leave their home unprotected more than necessary. Honestly, she was being more curious thzn anything. Wondering if there were more to the team back home protecting their planet. She knew that there were still three unawakened on her own team. And she hoped that remained that way.

Her memories of interacting with a Kinmoku contingent were some of the most fragmented. She remembered interacting with a few princesses from outside their solar system growing up but not much of anyone from Kinmoku though it had to have happened. She had interacted with the senshi of other systems even less then she would have interacted with the princesses. Usagi, Sailor Moon, was curious.

"No, there's six senshi native to the Kinmoku system total. The remaining three stayed back on Kinmoku to protect our home until we could get back." Kakyuu answered. "What about your team?"

"Three are unawakened so six for now." Sailor Moon answered figuring it was a fair question considering her own question. Deciding to leave out the fact that one of them was currently living halfway across the world at the moment. Though Minako was expected to return to Japan within the week. It would be good to have all of them in the same country. Even if none of them would be seeing action anytime soon if ever she honestly hoped.

"Sometimes I wish I had senshi powers. Would make it easier when I watch the others go into battle." Kakyuu said to herself after a moment. Or maybe not. With her senshi's protective streak she might never see a fight even if she did have some sort of power. Not that it mattered, her becoming a senshi was but a dream at this point. More to protect her home with. More ability to assist others. There had been crown princesses in her home system that had awakened as senshi. It was such a rare anomaly, and her guardians had been awakened for so long she doubted she would ever gain powers of her own. No matter how much she wished otherwise at times.

"It's not exactly easy but I understand. I don't think I could let them go without joining them." Sailor Moon said scratching the back of her head. As much as she disliked fighting it was difficult to watch those you cared about go into battle and probably was even worse when you couldn't do anything about it.

"We really should get going princess." The lighter brown haired senshi, Star Maker Sailor Moon remembered herself being introduced as, reminded Kakyuu breaking into the conversation before it could go any further. It was a long trip back home and they had more people coming back with them then they had leaving. While it was good to establish contact with Earth and the remains of the Silver Alliance after all this time this had never been planned as an extended trip. Maybe a future trip would be in order to help establish things between the former allies was a good idea in the future. After things had started to settle again for both sides.

"If you are in need of a favor again in the future don't be afraid to contact us." Pluto said giving a slightly formal bow as the remaining senshi and princess stopped just short on the ship entrance. They technically owed them one for not treating this as an act of war. Some planets they might not have been so lucky with.

"Hopefully that won't be needed but we will remember that. Thank you." Kakyuu said giving a polite smile. Before stepping back onto the ship. A few moments later the door hatch closed and the ship took off headed back to their homeworld.

"Do we actually owe them though?" Uranus asked a few moments after the contingent had left for Kinmoku. She got that back in the days of the Silver Alliance having powerful allies was a good idea. But what was the actual chance that they would be fighting something nearly as Metallia?

"We do actually." Pluto confirmed. With such little detail as to how the humans turned youma came to be. Things could have gone south very quickly. It was a gesture of good faith not to do so. It was returning the gesture to say they could help if needed. Considering the distance between Earth and Kinmoku, it was hard to say if it would be much use if they were actually called upon. Even with senshi enhanced abilities, they couldn't exactly get to one or the other in a matter of a day. "Even with them being old allies considering what led to this some planets could have taken this in a completely different light. That being said, being on their good side is for the best if for no other reason its hard to say what the future holds."

"They could have come as enemies." Neptune noted frowning slightly. They could have been forced to fight once allies armies with none of their own and the earth and all around it could have been occupied and captive to the conflict. The scope of what could have happened from this was... staggering. Considering how much damage Metallia had wrought with her Dark Kingdom a problem bigger then the demonic entity was troubling. That Kinmoku could have been that problem even more so troubling. They had gotten lucky in some ways with defeating Metalia and Usagi was still recovering from doing so. The fight could have been a lot more drawn out and could have ended with one or more of their deaths. If they ran into another enemy, there was no guarantee they would be so simple to defeat let alone that they would be so lucky.

A couple of nights later saw most of the group gathered at the concert hall for something Haruka and Michiru had been preparing for a while for. Personally, Usagi was glad that it meant she would probably be having the others back with her during lunch. Sure, she still saw them around the apartment, but she had missed the lunch periods. Maybe the bullies would finally start to back off.

Not all the group was attending the concert though the invite had been extended to everyone. Beryl and Setsuna had passed. Even with things starting to ease between Beryl and everyone else, as it became more apparent that she really wasn't out to do anything else after being released from Metallia's control, things were still very awkward. It was common knowledge no one was going to be able to fully relax in the others presence yet. Jadeite had passed saying it wasn't really his thing. And Zoisite was too busy dealing with a recently relocated Kunzite to even consider this. Hotaru was supposed to be coming with her Dad a bit later though so it wasn't completely the same people that had been there during that first concert, though it was surprisingly close when Usagi stopped to think about it.

It was a bit funny for Usagi to be back at the same concert hall that Naru had dragged her to all the way back in January when she had a now seemingly absurd crush on some random jazz musician. Things had become both harder and easier in ways for Usagi since then, and if you had told her then she would be a reincarnated princess, Usagi would have laughed and thought you were joking or crazy back before things had happened. It was funny to remember just how far they had a come.

"Don't worry. She's on the block list." Haruka said scowling slightly. Usagi had gotten melancholy for a moment back in the dressing room. Remembering how the first time she had ended up here was to try and avoid Yuki. They had gone and made a point to security that Yuki Ono nor anyone related to her were to be allowed into the concert hall. Even if they had tickets. This had been non-negotiable.

"That's a relief at least." Usagi let out a breath she didn't really know she had been holding. While there was no black ice for Yuki to push her onto this time, she still wouldn't have put it past Yuki to try something. What she wasn't entirely sure what knowing Yuki at this point she would have found some way to make her life difficult and it would be big. It had been too long she had peace from Yuki. Usagi was half convinced the girl would blow if she didn't do something soon. The more literal image got a small momentary smile to slip out at least.

Haruka gave Usagi a questioning look having notice her expression changing as she put a brush down she'd been using on the hair that was loose just then. Usagi gave a small smile. "I'm alright." Setsuna had been correct when she had warned that this recovery would take time. Usagi was just glad that she seemed to feel mostly normal before the school year started again. She really didn't need to be falling asleep in the middle of class and drawing questions from her classmate that she simply couldn't answer ever.

The concern clearly still lingered, and probably would continue to until the end of time. This wasn't something Haruka really expected she or Michiru would be able to shake. Not easily at least. After so many close calls, it was hard to imagine it would ever go away.

Usagi shook her head silently with a small smile crossing her lips. They worried too much. She had purposely slept for a couple of hours before they had left for the concert hall. "When are the others going to start to arrive?" Usagi asked trying to get the topic off of anything remotely close to her health and wellbeing for now and on to something completely different. Also, she was worried about Michiru quietly fretting in the corner. She was so stiff a breeze might have broken her in half.

Along with Naru and Hotaru attending, Haruka and Michiru's respective siblings were supposed to be coming. Haruka seemed to take this in stride as her's regularly had done so at some point. Michiru on the other hand, while others might miss it, she was sure Haruka had to also have noticed how tense she was.

Usagi didn't know Mamiko and Misako well but she imagined they would love the performance.

Misako had formally been told about a week ago, about who Michiru and the others actually were (it had been decided if she was going to be told Michiru was Sailor Neptune, it was best to state the others since she would most likely figure it out anyway). Setsuna had formally agreed to take on Misako on as another patient and when that had happened, it had then reached the point that Mamiko and Michiru both knew they couldn't keep Michiru being Sailor Neptune from her.

On the other hand, Usagi, with Haruka's siblings, was a bit excited and a bit nervous. Sure she was acquainted with Michiru's siblings but she hadn't met either of Haruka's older brothers before. Souta and Kaito, if she remembered correctly, were there names. She had heard the stories of their work from Haruka but due to the odd locations they tended to work and the periods they could be gone she hadn't met them before. Admittedly, according to Haruka the last time they had been in Japan had been before Usagi had ever met the other two.

"I wonder when they are going to get here." Haruka mumbled beside Usagi as they watched Michiru fret about little things.

"Actually we just arrived." Mamiko's voice announced the arrival of Michiru's sisters. Misako quickly coming up and giving Michiru a hug that she was happy to return. Michiru stopped fretting over things around her and seemed to relax but she was still tense and to anyone that knew her well it was still noticable.

"Hideki's not attending?" Michiru noted with a slight frown. She had invited her sister's husband if he wanted to come. It seemed like the more Mamiko got involved with senshi issues the more problems that happened with the two of them. She wasn't entirely sure why that was a reoccurring problem or how the two things related but then she hadn't asked either.

"No, he said he had something else to attend to. I wasn't in the mood for another argument so I didn't press for details." Mamiko admitted with a frown. She wasn't sure what was keeping him busy tonight. Probably because she wouldn't like where the suggestions might lead. "How did you three meet here anyway?" Mamiko asked more to herself then to the others, mind venturing on a different topic. She remembered Michiru mentioned that her and Haruka had encountered Usagi the first time at a concert similar to this. But hadn't given the full details and Mamiko had never heard the full story about that initial meeting beyond the bare minimum mainly because it had never seemed that important in the scheme of things.

"Long story." Usagi said shaking her head. Knowing that talking about that night involved going into a lot of different details. Some of which she just didn't have the energy to deal with at the moment. Particularly Yuki's involvement in the whole thing, again. Missing Mamiko shooting a questioning look at Michiru who mouthed later.

"How are things going at work?" Michiru asked deciding to change the topics for the moment. Usagi was right that it was a long story and one that could be saved for later. Right now she was more wondering if there had been any updates . There was little they could do with the Beryl and the others situations besides get them identification so they weren't mistaken for illegals from another country. They had done what they could. They had rescued those they could find. Now, most of it was in the governments hands as they tried to sort through the new arrivals and figure out how to integrate them into society like they had always been there. Why did it still feel like they didn't do enough? Like they missed something? She shook her head lightly and looked at her little sister. She was here and Michiru would do her best for her. Some things... if you wonder too much about them can drive you mad. This, this she could deal with. Right now. In this moment. Her sisters were watching the performance and Usagi and Haruka. Right here. This moment.

"It's a mess but that's to be expected. The entire situation with Beryl and the others certainly caused a rather large mess with the higher ups." Mamiko said shaking her head. They had kept most of the initial plan of attack from the higher ups since it had been thought that the group might be small enough that they could take care of it themselves. It had become quickly apparent that this was not something you could quietly slip by. Not everyone knew who held what status in the Dark Kingdom. It had been decided for the safety of everyone Beryl's status as former leader of the Dark Kingdom would be extremely sensitive information that only a few people outside of the Sailor Senshi could ever know about. If it went public because someone thought they knew better then the senshi it could have disastrous results. "At least once things get sorted out, it will quiet down." For the most part, there were some still things to be dealt with concerning the girls, but it wasn't Dark Kingdom related.

"I know Luna had mentioned that there was a chance another enemy may eventually fall on the heels of the Dark Kingdom." Mamiko said frowning slightly. She had talked with Luna a couple of times in the aftermath of the Dark Kingdom. In the aftermath of everything she had realized she needed to be talking to more than her own sister about the issues that happened within the fights and that included talking to the Senshi adviser no matter how odd she found it. She had gotten more used to it as she had interacted with the Senshi, but some things still struck her as odd. Like the supposed alien talking cat among other things. "Do you have any idea on what the actual chances of having to face another enemy are?

"We're not certain. Usagi would probably have the best idea outside of Luna on this since she would know the history of the Alliance possibly the best due to her status as High Princess. Usagi?" Michiru turned to the younger blonde who had been talking with Misako in the meantime. Being Serenity's reincarnation, she should have the best idea of how often the Moon Kingdom had been threatened in the past and what the possibility of Sailor Senshi walking around could bring again. That was if she remembered enough of her own history. "Do you remember how much the Moon Kingdom got threatened? Either in our time period or historically?"

"Even if you did remember more who knows if it would be accurate with how much the Queen messed with things." Haruka muttered before Usagi could answer. Some of Usagi's lack of knowledge about previous invasions may have been her wanting to do other things when she was supposed to be tutored, however considering how scattered to Usagi's own memories of being Serenity being more scattered at times it could also be a result of the Queen's messing with things.

"Haruka." Usagi warned. She didn't want to get too far down this path on her personal history with the Queen. Turning to Mamiko for a moment. "She's right though. My memories of the Moon Kingdom are scattered in places. While I do remember some discussions of past invasions, I don't have enough to be able to give you any idea of what may come in the future if at all." Usagi gave a sad smile at that. "Sorry." And even if she did who know how accurate that information could actually be? Luna who at the beginning was supposed to have the most information on the Moon Kingdom hadn't even known there was a rebellion until Usagi's memories of it had started to come back. What if she herself didn't remember something important similarly?

"You heard anything from your brothers Haruka?" Usagi asked trying to get the topic off of the Moon Kingdom. And the still ever present confusion that seemed to follow the topic. At least the others family was something she could understand, well mostly anyway.

"Good chance we won't get to talk until after the concert. They are coming straight from the airport. I'd be surprised if they were awake enough to enjoy the performance." Haruka admitted with a small smile you could have missed if you weren't paying attention. Usagi suspected Haruka was quite grateful and even touched they went through such lengths to be here. Her brothers were on the start of a break from a dig and had it been mostly good timing that allowed to come.

"We should probably head into the lobby for now. The shows start isn't too far off." Mamiko noted glancing at the time. Breaking off any more thoughts about family relations and how to handle them. A quick glance at the clock revealed it was getting close but still had a bit. Then again Haruka and Michiru had to be ready before the curtain call and the others needed to get seated.

"I was kind of hoping to meet Hotaru finally." Misako noted frowning slightly. Hotaru was still the only senshi in Japan that Misako had yet to actually properly meet. She also hadn't met Venus yet either, but Venus wasn't expected to be home for another few days. So out of the ones, she could meet Hotaru was the only one she hadn't. Which was a bit disappointing because according to her sister Hotaru was the one closest to her in age. And she kind of had been excited to meet someone who was a Sailor Senshi that wasn't much older then her. Considering it was getting close to start time she guessed they would have to meet another time.

"Yeah, they just seem to be running a bit late." Usagi said frowning slightly. While Setsuna wasn't attending, Hotaru was, and so were Naru and Masato. Hotaru could be running late for any number of reasons so she wasn't as worried with her. It was more dealing with Naru at the moment. As far as she knew Naru wasn't haven't any issues at home with her relationship with Masato but who knew what could pop up. This was the first time either of them had gone out together since Naru had first told her mother about all the Silver Alliance and all it entailed. "Hopefully they'll be here soon." She let out a sigh she wasn't looking forward to being in the crowd again but Mamiko was right they needed to get out of here. "Lets get going I guess."

"Usagi!" Hotaru greeted her as she separated slightly from Mamiko and Misako as they moved out of the backstage area and into the lobby, spotting the purple haired girl rather quickly. Her father was trailing not too far behind "Hope we aren't too late."

"No everyone's still arriving your not late." Usagi said shaking her head, grateful it seemed nothing was wrong and she was just running late. Speaking of which… "Ah I think I see Naru and Masato arrived here."

"Hey Usagi." Naru said coming up one of her own arms wrapped around Masato's arm. "Assuming we didn't miss anything?"

"Nothing yet." Usagi confirmed. Though she was starting to hope it would all be starting soon. Crowd was getting on the noticeably bigger side, and while she should stay out here for all intents and purposes. That didn't mean she exactly enjoyed it.

"It is nice to be here without running into trouble." Naru said grinning slightly. Referencing their last run with trouble when they had been here for the jazz musician originally that Naru had had that crush on.

Usagi shook her head. "You were partly responsible for the trouble we ran into last time may I remind you?" It had been Naru's idea to sneak into the concert after all. Neither had tickets so it was a miracle they hadn't landed in more trouble. Naru's boy craziness seemed to have mellowed now but that wasn't the first time it had gotten them into trouble.

"Yeah I know. Brings back some memories huh?" Naru said cracking a mischievous smile. It had been a while since they had nearly gotten into trouble for something that wasn't life threatening. It was nice to remember when trouble didn't always equal some sort of weird evil. Masato sat silently listening as if he was trying to piece something together before shaking his head.

"Definitely." Usagi agreed with a smile. It was strange at times to think how many memories one could place could hold. They had only been here one other time for that matter. This wasn't the ruins of the Moon palace. Just the concert hall. Yet so much had been set in motion here. Now it was like they were coming full circle.

The lights dimmed for a moment before brightening again. "Ah that's the que to get seated." Not too much time to talk but at least everyone was here that was coming before it started.

Conversation drifted a bit as they made their way out of the lobby area and out to where the actual stage area was. Between the soon to be starting fall semester, life, and just different things in general, Usagi found her own thoughts drifting for a moment. A lot had changed in the past seven months since she had first become Sailor Moon and walked through these doors the first time. She doubted things would stop changing any time soon. For now, she was good, sure she didn't know what the future held exactly, if there would be another enemy, as much as she wanted not to think about that possibility, but come what may, she truly felt, in this moment, she could face whatever came next.

End of Chapter 35

End of Path's Divergence

AN: And that's a wrap.

Again sorry for how late this was. Things happened. Honestly, in hindsight, I'm surprised we managed to keep on track and only get behind with this one chapter. A lot happened behind the scenes in the past year and a half of posting.

It feels so incredibly odd to finally have part of this journey completed after all these years. And I am not going to deny its actually an emotional moment for me.

A quick note. I mentioned this back in 34's note but I am repeating it. Yes, there is a sequel, several planned actually, coming. However due to other things my beta and I want to build a backlog before we start posting it. So right now I don't have a definite date for posting the sequel. I know I said sometime between May and June. But a few things have happened since then so right now the aim is for maybe sometime mid-summer. Early fall at the latest is my goal but that could change. I promise it is coming and I am working on it. I just don't want to commit to a posting date yet. I will try to give a date when things are more concrete so keep an eye on my profile page.

Since doesn't have a system you can link the fics with I am recommending anyone over there to do an Author Alert. So you know when it comes up. Is it required? No. I will put something in the summary saying sequel to PD. But it will save you time probably just to have it on alert.

Ao3 people, it will be part of the linked series so I don't think it will be as difficult. But again if you want to know when it goes live subscription is always best.

Next fic will focus on the Makai arc. Which as the arc that introed me to Sailor Moon I will always have a soft spot for.

As always please remember to leave a review or a comment. I don't usually reply unless its to answer a direct question but I do read each of them.

And that's a wrap. See ya this summer!