::smiles:: If you're reading this that means that I've at least gotten 
your attention a *teensy* bit. Woo hoo! Now, without further ado…

@->->---
To Exist…
Chapter 3
By April Rayne
@->->---

    She stifled a gasp of surprise with her hand, and moved behind a 
big tree trunk, every now and then cautiously sticking her head out to
the side to see if she was dreaming. Was he even real? Maybe Usagi was
just hallucinating about the whole thing. Maybe her alarm clock would 
go off with that annoying, "BEEP BEEP BEEP" and she'd have another 
opportunity to flail her arms and knock it over onto the floor,dozing 
happily while it cracked into a couple of pieces.
    She waited anxiously. Nope, no annoying beeps, no crash. She 
wasn't dreaming.
    Her heartbeat quickened and her hands began to shake a bit. Was it
possible that Mamoru had… but it didn't make any sense… why Endymion? 
Did he remember?
    Usagi would find out soon enough, for when a *very* bewildered 
Endymion turned around, the first thing that caught his eye was the 
blond pigtail that stood out proudly from the tree trunk. Thinking the 
impossible, he approached the tree, and stopped short as a small 
figure ran headlong into him, making him take a step back.
    "Endymion!" she cried as her arms went around his waist. The voice 
was familiar, and yet different, and the mass of gold hair was exactly
the same as Serenity's…But his suspicions were dimmed when the girl 
looked up and stepped back a little.
    She was dressed in an outfit that reminded him of those of the 
senshi, but longer. Large blue eyes framed by long lashes looked up 
towards him, and their eyes clashed. A wave of thoughts and visions 
swept by in his mind.
    He didn't get the chance to dwell on his thoughts, because she 
quickly got to talking again, in a happy, breathless voice. "I'm so 
happy that you…Oh, Mamo-chan!" She hugged him again as tears of joy 
formed in the corners of her eyes. 
    "Gomen ne," he said quietly, so as not to scare her. "I don't know
who you are talking about."
    Her grasp around him loosened, and she leaned back to look at him 
with pained, widened eyes. "Eh?"

-------
    Four girls walked down the street towards the park, and stopped in 
front of the pastry shop. The girl with the long, dark hair spoke 
first. "Where in the world can she be?" Did she just all of a sudden 
*forget* that we're having another meeting today?"
    Surprised, a blue head popped up from the back of a physics book.
"Don't be hard on her, Rei-chan, Haruna-sensei yelled at her again 
today."
    "Ami-chan," Rei replied. "What else is new?"
    Trying to take the focus off Usagi's mistake, the tallest of the 
four, a brunette, spoke up. "Why don't we try the park?" Makoto nodded 
her head towards the area. 
    A blond, who resembled Usagi, nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'll bet
that's probably where she is. So, let's go!" Taking the lead, Minako 
continued to walk down the street, when they noticed Mamoru walking 
towards them. 
    They called out to him."Hi Mamoru-san!" He waved back. As he came 
closer, they saw the huge smile he was wearing, and the bag he was 
holding. 
    "Having a good day, Mamoru-san?" Rei asked. 
    "You could say that." He smiled to himself. "Ja ne!"
    Looking back at him as he walked away, they giggled. "He certainly
looked happy."
    Minako's eyes lit up. "Do you think…Maybe he and Usagi…"
    Makoto sighed. "Who knows?" She, Ami, and Minako continued on 
their way. 
    Rei looked back on Mamoru's figure disappearing in the distance. 
She didn't want to say anything earlier, but that rush of adrenaline 
pumping through her while she was at the temple, the flash, and then 
the vision of Usagi in the flames of the Sacred Fire…She cringed. They
were all related to Usagi and Mamoru somehow, because she had just 
felt a chill as they talked to him. Rei just hoped she could find 
Usagi soon so that they could find out what was really going on.
    "Rei-chan?'
    She turned to them and gave them a smile. "I'm coming, hold on!"

---------
    This was impossible. There he was, right in the flesh, and he 
*wasn't* Mamoru?

    Mamoru…Endymion-whoever he was, Usagi wasn't going to stand there 
and not do anything. This was supposed to be one of the most romantic 
things that's ever happened to her. You know, lover from the past gets 
his memories back, then there's mushy little love scene -at least, 
that's what she had always dreamt it would be. You know what? He was 
probably joking! Mamo-chan, even as Endymion, was up to one of his old
tricks again, just to see her agitated, wasn't he? Well, she wasn't 
going to stand for it. 
    "Mamo-chan, stop playing around already! I-" She stopped all of a 
sudden, stood dreadfully still, and put a hand to her head. She 
stepped back. Oh,*this* would teach him.
    "Are you all right?" 
    Her head snapped up. "Endy! If we don't hurry soon, my mother's 
going to make sure I'm stuck on the Moon for a hundred years! 
Hurry!"she grabbed his hand and started pulling him back.
    He remembered her words from somewhere. They were Serenity's…but 
how would she know?
    Of all the memories Usagi had of the Silver Millennium, this one 
fit the bill for the occasion. If she remembered correctly, Serenity, 
without looking, had ended up dragging him in the wrong direction…
    '…this was when we fell into the lake.' Endymion recalled with a 
smile. Soon the girl was taking his hand and began pulling him with 
her. 
    "Eh…I really don't think that…"
    "Ami-chan, stop reading and help us look!" came from the distance.
    Odango froze. 'Oh no!' Usagi cried as she spotted four familiar 
faces walking off the park pathway…straight towards her and Endymion!
'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh ohmygosh-what am I going to do?' Panicked, she
did what she had been doing for the past few days. 
    Usagi ran, with a highly surprised Endymion in tow.  She ran 
through the trees, sped past the bushes, out the park entrance, and 
exited into the bustling busy streets of Tokyo. 

    She finally turned into an alleyway, breathing heavily and holding
on tightly to his hand.  "We're safe here," she said in between 
breaths. 
    "What's going on? Where are we?"
    She let go of his hand reluctantly and turned to face him. 
"You still don't know? Stop playing, Mamo-chan." 
    "Gomen nasai. I'm not the one that you're talking about." 
    "But-" she trailed off. With everything that had been going on 
today, she somehow wouldn't be surprised if he was telling the truth. 
And for some strange reason, it dawned on her that it *was* true. 
Usagi found Endymion. That meant that Mamoru had to catch up to her, 
pass her, and then wait for her at the lake. And she couldn't remember 
*any* of that happening. Her eyes widened. 
    Endymion really had come from the past.

    "Please, can you tell me where I am?" interrupted her thoughts. 
    She searched for the right thing to say. "Tokyo."
    The name didn't ring a bell. "A city…on the Earth," she finished.
    The Prince stood still as the information sank into him. "The 
Earth…"
    "It's a really nice place!" she added to break the silence. She 
sweatdropped as he gave her a strange look. He continued with the 
questioning. "Why did you run?" 
    "Eh? Umm…for our safety." 'The others should know about this.' She 
thought. But something else inside of her told her not to tell them 
about it. 
    He studied her features quizzically. She reminded him so much of 
Serenity, she had so much life in her, but right now, she wasn't 
telling him everthing.  "I know that isn't it." She wondered how he 
knew. "You can at least tell me who you are," he whispered gently, 
tilting her chin up so she would look at him. 
    "Me?" She silently scolded herself for not thinking of it earlier. 
She smiled shyly.

    "I'm Tsukino Usagi."

------
    Minako paled. "Did you see that?"
    "I'm still trying to figure out if I'm hallucinating."
    Makoto nodded. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that we just 
saw Usagi with-"
    "Endymion…"
    "But does that mean that Mamoru-san…"
    Ami-chan cleared her throat."I hate to be the messenger of bad 
news,but we saw Mamoru-san, not Endymion, walking out of that shop and
going down the street the *opposite* way, remember?"
    They all exchanged glances, then looked towards the direction in 
which the couple had gotten away. "So if *that* was Mamoru-san…"
    "Then who was that with Usagi?"

@->->---

    After introducing herself, Usagi put out her hand for a handshake.
    Surprised at her gesture, he took her hand and brought it to his 
lips, making her gasp and shakily remove his hand from hers. "I am 
Crown Prince-"
    "The Crown Prince of the Earth, Prince Endymion."
    Knowing full well that she knew who he was, he still held a look 
of shock on his face. "Please, Usagi-sama-"
    "Call me Usagi."
    "Usagi…Tell me, how do you know my name?"
    "I…I've known about you, Endymion, for a long time."
    "But I don't recognize-"
    "I guess…that you wouldn't. But you have to understand me. Trust 
me, please."
    Logically, Endymion would be more cautious around any stranger 
that he met. Had he been somewhere else, with someone else, his mind 
would have told him that this was all a trap. But looking into Usagi's 
eyes, he found that he could not find so much as one single 
reason not to believe this girl, even though he knew basically nothing
about her. The sensation he felt…foreign, yet familiar, played with 
his mind. Before he could utter a word, she said something that made 
him freeze.
    "I know of the Moon Princess…Serenity."
    "Serenity…" 'That would explain what happened earlier.'
    Usagi gulped at the sudden darkening of his eyes. "You're trying 
to get back to her, aren't you?"
    "How do you know her?"
    "You could almost say that we're…sisters…I know that it doesn't 
make any sense to you right now, but I do know her."
    His gaze on her increased, as if he could decipher what she was 
trying to tell him through the expression on her face. She took 
another long, indrawn breath and continued before her thinking became 
muddled.
    "I can prove it," she said with confidence. She seemed to rethink 
what she was about to do, and continued in hushed tones. "You both met 
when she sneaked into your secret garden one night…"
    A small gasped escaped his lips. "Impossible…"
    "She told you that she had been watching you hadn't she?" She 
smiled wryly to herself, almost grimacing at the situation in which 
she was reminiscing. "But it didn't end there. I…she came to visit you 
so many times…" Another, more contented smile played on her lips. "She
was so happy…"
    "Do you know how to get me back?" 
    She shook her head no. "How did you even get here?"
    "On the court of the moon…" he recalled grimly, "I was charged 
with kidnapping Serenity, but she never knew because she was waiting 
for me in my-"
    "…garden." they finished together. 
    He nodded. "My punishment was banishment into an inter-dimensional 
void, a black hole, nothingness… I didn't even get the chance to prove 
myself innocent…or to see Serenity…" As Endymion's voice continued 
with his story, she could feel bits and pieces of that part of her 
memory opened to her. They were selective, yes, but important memories 
nonetheless. She could remember particularly how that night felt so 
much colder than usual…and that shiver that had raced up her spine 
made her wince. She had blamed it on the temperature, but the 
sensation lingered, warning her of what was going on.
    She began to whisper, "Queen Serenity…she was on Pluto with the 
other senshi for an important inter-planetary conference and you told 
your generals to go with the senshi so that you and Serenity could 
have time alone. So no one was there to…" Usagi placed her hand 
against her head as more information sank in, leaving her tired and 
speechless.
    "Usagi, are you all right?"
    "Hai…" She moved her hand away and put forth the best smile she 
could muster.  Her thoughts drifted, and then remained on one figure. 
"Endymion, we have to go see someone-He might be able to help." With 
that, she led him out of the dimmed alleyway and into the late 
afternoon sun.

@->->---

    Her blond hair flowed behind her as she ran. Her steps echoed in 
the dim corridor while her heart beat in her ears. 'Endymion…'

    The guards in front of the palace court had rigidly saluted 
Serenity, and relaxed as she asked them if they had seen Endymion. One
of them, a tall lanky one, told her that a group of guards had arrived 
earlier, and when he asked them what their business was, one of them 
whispered that Endymion was called upon for a very important meeting 
with the Duke (AN:The Duke is also the chief justice). He had not come 
out since then. 
    Serenity asked for entrance, but was denied, saying that they were
given orders from the Duke to keep all visitors at bay. She hated to 
use her title as a means of getting what she wanted, but in this case, 
someone she loved was in danger, and she didn't put humility over 
that. "As the Crown Princess of the Royal Lunar Dynasty, Princess 
Serenity, I override any orders given by the Duke and demand 
entrance!"
    "H..Hai!" The nervous guards shifted aside and let her enter.

    Soon she was at the doors to the main courtroom, only to find out 
that they were locked. She banged on it numerous times. "Duke Arlan!!" 
she cried. "I demand to see you!" The doors creaked open, and she 
pushed her way forward, into an empty room. Empty, that is, until she 
noticed the figure sitting in the court justice's chair. "Where's 
Endymion?" She seethed. 
    The figure stood, and Serenity gasped at the twisted image he had 
become, his face wrinkled and in disarray, eyes bloodshot and infused 
with evil. "Don't worry, Princess. You'll see him soon enough." 
    The heavy doors closed behind her with a deafening slam.

End Chapter 3

Is this getting confusing?

Disclaimer: This wouldn't be *fan*fiction if I wasn't a fan. Sailor 
Moon belongs to the wonderful Naoko Takeuchi-sama and countless 
others...

startear42@aol.com 
E-MAIL ME! Please? 

If ne1 has any free time, does ne1 think that they'd be able to read 
some of my other unfinished stuff and help me with it?