Prologue
Through Their Eyes
Chapter 1: Segue to the Past Life
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Standing in front of a wide bank of windows, four women slowly waved to a departing plane. It was a futile gesture, for surely the two people that that they waved to, rapidly ascending into the clear, spring sky aboard the hunk of streamlined metal, couldn't see them. The thunderous sound of jet engines faded slowly, only to be replaced as the next plane began its sprint down the runway.

Ami's hand hung in the air as if forgotten.

"Earth to Ami-chan?" Makoto released her clasped hands from the back of her head and waved one of them in front of her friend's vacant eyes.

Ami pulled her hand down self-consciously and smoothed her dark hair behind her ears. "Sorry, guys. I may be a bit of a bore," She offered a smile that fell flat. "Now that Mamoru-san and Usagi-chan have left for their honeymoon, I don't want you to feel like you have to stay until my plane leaves, too."

"Nonsense." Minako snorted, and then examined her friend a little closer. "You look tired, Ami-chan. Too much partying at the happy couple's reception last night?"

The young, prospective doctor blushed slightly and avoided the prying eyes of the leader of the senshi. "No. But I do admit that I haven't slept well since our battle with Mio before the wedding."

This seemed to garner a strong reaction, as both Makoto and Rei looked in Ami's direction. "Have your dreams been waking you, Ami-chan?" Rei asked.

"Yes," Ami said slowly. "Dreams."

"They're not dreams. And you're not the only one having them." Rei's voice was quiet but firm, her gaze distant. Her dark eyes followed a plane as it ascended into the sky. "They're memories." She said simply. "Memories of our past life."

Minako bit her lip in the effort to conceal her surprise. She shot her gaze to Rei - to the one woman least likely to say such a thing in so calm a manner. She struggled with her train of thought and forced her attention back to Ami. "What… what have you dreamt about?"

"Nothing concrete." Ami replied slowly. "Fractured images, small scenes."

Makoto nodded. "It's the same for me. I can't remember them too clearly. All I remember when I wake up is vivid emotions and fuzzy images. Sometimes… sometimes I don't even have to be asleep to experience it."

Minako turned to the miko that refused to meet her gaze. "Rei? What about you?"

The miko's lack of a response was equally telling. Rei brushed aside her dark bangs with her bandaged arm and pointedly avoided eye contact.

Ami steepled her fingers together. The small group found themselves drifting even closer together. In the busy airport, their need for closeness and quiet conversation was at odds with the shouted welcomes, tearful goodbyes, and disorganized bustle of the airline industry.

"I think," Ami said with measured words, "that Luna once told us that the memories of our past lives were buried within our hearts, and that someday, we would remember, as long as we kept protecting the Earth from its enemies. Perhaps it was the battle against Mio that triggered our memories. Perhaps it was the influence of the Legendary Sword that required our combined strength to activate that triggered it."

Ami's hands began to shake. She thrust them into the pockets of her light jacket and looked to Minako, searching for her leadership. "You're the only one of us… the only one who has always had these memories."

Minako fidgeted under the concentrated attention of all her friends, but she felt Rei's burning glare the most. "Ah… yes." Minako replied hesitantly.

"Then what do you think of this?" Ami asked.

"I think... I know that your memories will return as a slow trickle." Minako stared at her hands. Her words were spoken quietly and with great respect. "You won't be able to control it-"

"I don't like the idea of that." Ami said hurriedly.

"Of the memories?" Minako asked.

"No. Of not having control of them as they come to me. It seems we all have various states of remembrance."

"And?" Makoto looked to Ami with no small amount of confusion as to what she hoped to achieve.

"And perhaps if we work together, we can facilitate a timeline. Something that makes sense. Something we can control together, instead of experiencing this frightening trickle of disconnected memories."

"Are you sure you want that, Ami-chan?" Minako asked gently, reaching a hand out to rest on Ami's arm. "The Silver Millennium wasn't exactly a pretty place."

Makoto's hands balled into fight fists. "The memories will come to us anyway. Ami-chan's right. I… I need to know too. Anything would beat this constant state of confusion I've been in. Now that I know you guys are going through it too… I want to know what it was like. Even though we all know how it ended."

"It's not just the ending that was so painful, Makoto."

Both Makoto and Minako looked to the stoic miko. The singer's voice caught in her throat. "Rei?"

An overly cheerful voice that was much louder than it needed to be spilled from the intercom. "Flight number fifty-three, to London, England, will be departing from gate A in fifteen minutes. Would all ticketed guests-"

"Isn't that your cue?" Minako asked the woman they were supposed to be seeing off.

Ami shifted her small suitcase from one hand to another. "It was supposed to be. But I'm not leaving. Not until I understand this."

Makoto nodded. Their logical friend wasn't the only one who needed answers. From her tall vantage point, she looked down at her leader. "Minako, will you help us?"

The singer looked down at a delicate, silver watch that hung loosely from a small wrist. Her manager would be expecting her soon. With the extended stay in Japan she'd planned, he was already scheduling several appearances on her behalf.

"I can make the time." She replied casually. Her gaze inevitably landed on her closest friend. "Rei?"

Rei issued a long-suffering sigh. "I would like… closure, as well." Thoroughly aware that her leader might have misconstrued her words, she bristled suddenly and a generous amount of her normal venom returned to lace her otherwise calm voice. "Though these memories of a past life mean nothing to my life today."

Minako smirked; a quirky half smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "As you've made it abundantly clear on more than one occasion."

And when Minako met Rei's gaze, she was wholly surprised to find none of the anger and apprehension she'd always associated with discussion of their past lives. Instead, Minako was met with Rei's cool, dark eyes and a complete lack of expression, and now it was her turn to become worried and distant. The normally confident leader floundered in Rei's calm resignation.

Finally, the stifling effect of hundreds of strangers that pressed around them seemed to make the four women understand that they needed the presence of each other now more than ever.

"Crown?" Minako finally suggested.

"Where else?" Makoto chuckled, and at least her warm laugh brought a smile to each woman's face as they followed Minako's lead.

Given the mid-day traffic, the drive from Narita back to Minato-ku was no short trip, and the ride in the back of Minako's hired limo was a silent one. At one point, Makoto gasped, no doubt while in the throes of a vivid memory. She was left to her remembrance; for, at the moment, any one of the others might have been experiencing the same thing.

They exited the car just as silently and descended the familiar concrete steps underneath the neon sign of the Crown Karaoke building. With tipped heads and bangs shielding their eyes, the four women who might have seemed a little too old to be singing karaoke in the middle of the day avoided the confused gaze of Motoki, who in turn, wondered why his girlfriend seemed so distant as she passed by his desk.

The invisible door didn't fail them, and the close friends descended the flight of steps to what had once been their secret base underneath the Crown. Makoto busied herself with wiping off the layer of dust that covered the table in the middle of the room before each of them distractedly took their assigned seats.

No small amount of time was spent staring at the only empty chair, the pink seat that belonged to Usagi. Each of them longed for the comforting presence of their Princess, but at the same time, they knew that this was something that they needed to do on their own.

No instruction was needed for the feat they were about to begin. Their thoughts simply aligned. The room seemed to shimmer, and suddenly, they were no longer in their secret base, but in a place far away, looking through the eyes of one of their own.

Author's Notes: And so begins my version of the PGSM Silver Millennium. Through Their Eyes will be told mostly through the experiences of the senshi's past-life personas, with several interludes back to the present day (promptly after the end of the Special Act). The story is about 28 chapters long and I'm hoping to provide regular updates.

As for pairings? Let's just say senshixsenshi. Nothing is cut quite so clearly when Serenity is around. Do expect Rei and Minako, obviously.

Thanks to all my Live Journal friends for their input, especially Mels. They've beta'ed scenes and snippets, and in some cases, entire chapters of TTE for the past ten months I've been writing (or ignoring) this.