Our Past part 3: The Reason We Fought

Title: Our Past part 3: The Reason We Fought

Author: kazeko

Show: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Timeline: "The Last Sacrifice: The End of the Silver Millennium", "CAS 1: The Trouble with Love is the Lovers", "CAS 2: To Defy Destiny", "Every Cloud", "Crystal Shards", "CAS 3: Unwilling Accomplice", "Our Past 1: The Reason We Fight", "CAS 4: Princess of Light", "Our Past 2: The Reason We Still Fight", "Our Past 3: The Reason We Fought", "CAS 5: One Last Shining Star", "Destiny or Duty", "Desperately Searching", "Kazeko", "Chronicles of the Star Senshi"

Series: "Our Past"

Multipart: no

Time: At the very beginning of SailorStars, just before Haruka and Michiru appear in the aquarium

Couple: Haruka/Michiru

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Duh.

Author's Note: This is the third fanfic I ever wrote and Haruka mentions events from this fic in "Kazeko". Immediately after this I wrote "The Last Sacrifice". Enjoy.

Sailor Neptune led Uranus through the portal, stopping still at the beautiful sight that met her questing blue eyes. It was a paradise, more beautiful than any part of Earth had any right to be. "Elysion," she whispered. "This is the place of dreams."

"Yes," her partner agreed. "I remember hearing about this place. Isn't there supposed to be a guardian of some kind?"

"I am he." A tall man with silver hair and a golden horn in the center of his forehead entered the pillar-enclosed area, his white robes shining in the sunlight. "Who comes here to ask me?"

"Ten'ou Haruka and Kaiou Michiru," Uranus introduced, sensing that it was safe to reveal their identities. "You must be the wings that saved our princess."

"She is my princess, too, since she has been engaged to the prince of my planet for many hundreds of years. I am Helios, and my soul is that same Pegasus that combined with the princesses to save them so recently. Chibiusa was kind enough to hide me in her dream mirror while Nehelenia sought myself and the Golden Crystal I guard. You are the senshi of Uranus and Neptune; I knew that my call would reach you."

Michiru raised an eyebrow. "I guess that we are meant to go to Tokyo now and were not needed in our princess's battle against this Nehelenia?"

"Correct, Princess of Neptune. Very correct. I did not expect you to come here, though; I assume your mirror gave you that power."

"It comes in handy. Do you never have guests here?"

"Except for my prince, no. You are the first to come of your own accord. Pluto told me that the only two who would come here would be the two who sacrificed themselves in the final battle of the Silver Millennium and gave me up to a better life. You two must be my parents."

Haruka and Michiru didn't move for so long that Helios was afraid they would die of shock just standing there. "Are you okay?"

"Parents? Helios, Haruka may wear men's clothing, but at least in her Sailor fuku it is quite clear that she is a woman. Two women can never have a child, especially not a son." Michiru placed her hand on Haruka's arm and looked up at her partner. "As much as I'd like for it to be true, there is no way that I can believe you."

"You must, Princess of Neptune. Let me explain." Helios gestured at a nearby bench, and the two Sailor Senshi sat down with the Pegasus that claimed to be their son. "A long time ago, in the Silver Millennium, the senshi were far more powerful. You two were the princesses of Uranus and Neptune and very much in love. Of course, your parents could never approve a union of two princesses because prophecy and tradition forbid it. They knew that the power in a sailor senshi is too powerful to be combined with that of another of your rank. Because of your love, all you two could see was that senshi were not allowed together because they could not have children. So you tried to use your power to combine your life forces, your souls, and create a child. You thought it failed, so you settled for love rather than a true partnership, but your love and longing for someone to inherit your two kingdoms and your power rather than your senshi curse created a son in Michiru's womb. I protected her in the final battle, so she healed from the same type of wounds that mortally crippled you, Haruka."

"She told me," Uranus whispered, finally remembering that last tiny piece of her past. "She told me, as I lay dying, that she was pregnant with my son. I told her to run, to save the boy and herself, but she would not go."

"I would not live while the woman I loved and all of my friends died," Michiru hissed, angry at the suggestion more than the woman for suggesting it. "I knew that as long as the child was inside me I would not die and join my Haruka, so I called Pluto. Ah! I was right! She does know what I was remembering! Anyway, I remember calling her and begging her to take my son so that I could be with Uranus and die with the rest of the scouts. She showed me how to use our magic to transfer the fetus, and I asked her what his future held."

"She told you that I was far too powerful to be anything less than a Unicorn, a Pegasus Unicorn, and that I would have a future protecting the prince and princess and her entire court. She was right."

Michiru nodded at Helios's words. Haruka listened to the story; she didn't know any of it. "I asked Pluto to take Uranus's son somewhere safe where he could grow up loved and surrounded by pure beauty until he was ready to fight. She promised me, and I asked her to name you Helios. I remember now; I knew your name sounded familiar."

"I watched you fighting," Haruka whispered. "I watched you fight and I felt you hold my hand as my soul fled, and I remember wondering why you were dying. I wanted you to live and preserve our love."

"The entire kingdom fell; there was nothing I could do. Haruka, we have a son!"

Haruka grinned and looked up at Helios. "I know you can't leave this place, but it is nice to know that you at least survived."

Helios smiled at his parents, touching his mother's hand. "Michiru, I know what you are thinking, and it just isn't possible. I am a part of this place, more than you are part of the Princess's court. I can't leave, and I don't want to. Sometimes I wish I could have been your son for real, but I'm happy."

"Helios, I believe that you're happy. But I have the last of my memories back now and I find myself anxious for a child—my child."

"I'm not fated to be the child you raise. The one you need to guard will come to you soon."

"In Tokyo," Haruka realized, the premonition and her son's call finally making sense. "You knew that if we came here we would remember our past, and you planed to use Michiru's maternal desire for a child to make us raise one for you."

"Not for me," Helios corrected, one slim finger raised. "For destiny. That child will be needed in the coming battle and you two must raise her. Without you, she will not come into her full power quickly enough and the princess, prince, future princess, and all of the Sailor Senshi will die. It won't matter if you survive the battle then; the Earth and most of the rest of the galaxy will be enveloped by a darkness greater than that which threaded the galaxies during the Sailor Wars long before the Silver Millennium."

"Sailor Wars? Sailors fighting each other? Helios, that chaos is gone."

"No, Haruka, it is not. Chaos is never gone, and you must return to Tokyo to stop the coming darkness. In this battle, Sailor Moon and her senshi cannot fight alone. They will die before the darkness arrives and you will arrive just in time to bury them. You cannot let that happen."

"No," Haruka growled, "we won't. This war is why you called us, Helios?"

"Yes. Beware threats from outside our Solar System and protect the Moon Princess at all costs. She cannot die and she must not be allowed to make dangerous alliances. You will know, Michiru, when the fight is to begin, and you must seek out Sailor Moon then. I may not be with you in truth, Michiru, Haruka, but I will be with you in spirit. I wish you the best of luck, and I can assure you that reunions and happiness await you."

Haruka pulled Michiru to her feet, and the two senshi faced their son. "Helios, I'm sorry that we couldn't save you, but I'm glad you're happy." Uranus held out her hand, and was surprised by the strength in her son's grip. "Thank you, and remember this: we will win and we will see you again."

"I look forward to it."

Michiru, Princess of Neptune, wrapped her arms around the Pegasus, tears sprinkling her cheeks. "Goodbye," she managed before returning to her lover's side.

"Goodbye, Mother."

Uranus and Neptune left the dream realm, somehow happier and sadder than they had been before the journey. "To Tokyo then, Michiru?"

"Yes."

Their conversations were quiet, subdued, contemplative, until the day much later, at the end of their journey, when they found themselves in an aquarium they had visited many times during their last visit to Tokyo. Michiru slipped her arm into Haruka's, smiling at her partner. "We've come full circle; we're back in Tokyo and back in the fight."

"I don't mind, Michiru; as long as we're together I can endure anything."

The End of this part and this trilogy