ZZZ, the last thing you say

10/23/2012

Summary: There are things in this world that people can't account for. They'd rather pretend the things that go bump in the night aren't real and cower in their beds. Most of the time that works.

Genre: Mystery & Horror

Rated: M, for V, G, S & S

AN: So I've decided to take another stab at a Halloween Fic. This time though, you have to work with me, it's going to be a little crazy... hehehe, but only in true Halloween form. You have to thank a tumbler site for this idea, not that they know it, but something I saw sparked an idea and so lo and behold, a halloween fic! Hehe... but not in the strictest sense of the word. You'll see. But PLEASE give it more than a chapter or two to really catch your interest. It's much more than a horror story. There's layers and depth to it and it will unfold beyond the shock factors and I think I have a pretty good chance of continuing this beyond Halloween until its finished.

AN2: Can I just say... I love the four kings, I can't help it, there's just so much room to grow as characters. I try to throw them in whenever I can. Delicious sigh...

MAJOR AN: This is not my first fic, far from it, so anything that's not canon is ON PURPOSE! Sorry, but after explicitly stating this in AN, I always get at least one review telling me that something I said or did is wrong. I'm well aware, it's got a point and a reason for it. I'm well versed in canon season 1 thru 3 and even Stars to a degree. Don't ask me about the Chaos controlled senshi, but anything on Earth at the time I know all.

–

Chapter 1

–

"Usagi, when is curfew?" Ikuko called out to her daughter who was just leaving for the day, curfew was a long way off and the last thing on the blond's mind.

"Mom." Usagi responded in exasperation. "I'll be home long before then, don't worry. What could keep me out that late?"

"All right." Ikuko sighed as Usagi let herself out of the house and onto the busy streets of Tokyo. Her daughter was getting old enough that she could take care of herself, but as a mother she still worried. Ikuko knew she was gone when the gate slid shut and the electronic locks hummed as they re-bolted.

Ikuko's gaze turned to Shingo. "Need me to drive you?" She asked the ten year old who looked back at her only when his cartoon turned to a commercial break.

"Sure." Then he turned back to the cartoons and let the things on the screen zap him of any brain functioning.

–

"When is curfew?" Usagi repeated her mother's words but with a voice sounding a bit naggier than was actually used. "As if I couldn't remember something as simple as that!" She was complaining to her best friend as they road the public bus to the stop closest to their school.

"Moms do worry." Naru agreed and hung on tighter as their bus went over a bump. She fell into Usagi and her grip was so tight it made the flesh around her fingers white on Usagi's arm. Naru straightened up. "Sorry." But it took a moment longer before her grip was released. "Still not used to the newest form of slowing us down."

Usagi nodded in understanding, not that their bus driver was going particularly fast, it was just hard to hang on while standing and going around those curves in such a large vehicle. Usagi took Naru's hand in hers and laced their fingers. "Not to worry! What are best friends for?"

A few of the passengers were asleep in the back, but that was pretty normal for this part of the world, they usually tried to catch up on the sleep they missed while in transit. All too soon they were moving towards the doors and waving to the driver. "Thanks, bye!" They didn't see one of the men slump forward in his seat.

Once they were on solid ground Usagi turned to Naru. "Do you know what happened to the usual man behind the wheel? He's usually a lot better at driving."

"No idea, maybe they laid him off." Naru responded and they walked up to the large black gates to their school, one door was swung in to allow their entrance. They stopped and waited while they were scanned and then they passed another set of doors and were in for the day. A few of the students were told to wait and herded in another direction.

"Oh no... there goes Kuri, that's too bad, I really liked her."

Naru rolled her eyes. "She told me she was going to try and stay out passed curfew this week, said it was better than being home. I guess she did it and got caught. She should have known better, rule breakers don't last long around here."

"I suppose you're right." Usagi agreed, but her voice didn't have any of the muster in it that she normally did.

"Oh look, here comes one I just wish would break every rule so they could find something on him." Naru nudged Usagi, trying to cheer her up as one of their least favorite students came their way.

"I don't. I don't wish where they're going on anyone. I wonder if they ever get incorrect intel."

"People claim they do, but I'm not so sure. How could you ever challenge all their technology?" Naru suddenly became mute as Umino came up to them.

"Did you see the news last night? England's got a protector. Apparently she's been cleaning up the streets a lot faster than the police are." He sighed. "I wish we'd get someone around here like her."

"Careful what you wish for, or you'll be the one doing it." Usagi warned and got a shudder in response and not just from Umino. Something caught her attention at the corner of her eye and she turned to see what it was. There on top of the gates' brick structure was a black cat. "How odd..." She turned away and her friends looked at her in confusion before she rolled her eyes in that direction. They still weren't seeing it and so she shrugged. "It's not important, just a black cat on a Friday."

They were now giving her a look of confusion mixed with superstitious concern and she waved it away with both hands. "Not to worry, come on. It's better than a white cat at night."

"Yeah, all right. You're right. Right. Right?" Naru turned to Umino for confirmation to that last one and Usagi couldn't help but smile and wrap an arm around her friend.

"You're great, you know that?"

Naru blushed and shook her head. "Usa-chan, I'm a ditz."

"But you're a ditz just like me." Usagi winked and then made a grab for her hand while her other hand looked for Umino's before she could think about where it'd probably been recently. "Now lets go before we're late for class!"

–

The bell rang to single the end of the day and Usagi and Naru took one look at each other before they nodded with huge grins on their face and ran out the door that only went one direction. They raced each other down the busy Tokyo streets to the arcade gaming institute. They passed through another detector before they were allowed entrance automatically and they greeted the owner of the place. "Motoki!"

He turned to them with a huge grin. "So glad to see you today, just like every day. What can I do to make today that much more special?" He leaned down to give Usagi a kiss on the cheek. "Whatever you want, for two of my favorite customers."

"One more than the other?" Naru asked wryly and Motoki only shook his head in response, that wasn't exactly true but it wasn't completely wrong either.

"I'd like a milkshake please, Motoki-kun!" Usagi decided to ignore the bout of jealousy over favoritism, it wasn't her fault that she'd known him longer.

"Naru?" He asked as he turned to fulfill Usagi's order.

"One for me too." Naru seconded. "But make mine a strawberry."

"Coming right up!" And just like everyday, he brought them their orders and stuck around for a chat. "How was school today?"

Usagi made a face. "Pretty empty actually, almost half the class was out sick. They're going to need to start pulling from other schools that are overrun soon."

"I'm not sure that's a great idea." Motoki countered. "More bodies in the seats just mean more students to teach and less one on one time."

"The teachers keep changing too. At this point I don't think there's any chance that we're going to get a decent education." Naru complained.

"They're doing the best that they can." Usagi said softly. "It's been a hard time on everybody. People don't even want to walk the streets anymore."

That was true, although Tokyo was still busy and crowded it was a lot less than usual. Even the arcade seemed pretty barren and usually that was an oasis from what was going on outside, a type of safe haven for all who wanted to venture out of their homes.

Motoki was looking down at the counter as she said that and he raised sad eyes up to hers. She wasn't the only one who saw through all these 'precautions' that were put into place. How could anyone know anything for sure these days? He reached out and ruffled her hair. "Just as long as you're home by curfew, I can handle anything else."

Usagi swallowed and nodded. Some days that was easier said than done. Someone new passed through the sensor and she lifted her head to see who it was. A scowl crossed her features. "I might take back what I said earlier today, Naru, if he says one word-"

"Hey stocking-stuffer." He reached out and made more of a mess with her hair than Motoki had done. "See you're already starting in on the sugary drinks."

She glared up at him. "I don't see anything wrong with it. One a day can't hurt."

"Maybe it does more than you know." He was looking down at it with disgust as the strange solid state it was turned slowly to a liquid. "Any rate, Motoki, coffee please."

"Two seconds, just put on a new pot." Motoki didn't even budge from his spot at the counter, the only one able to keep the peace between these two. "Got in a new game, Usa-chan, one based on that girl in England."

"Ooh." Usagi skipped off and dragged Naru along with her.

Mamoru watched the two go and then turned back to Motoki who finally pushed off to fill Mamoru's cup. "One of these days she's going to find herself in a pickle of her own making."

"Maybe, one of these days, but I hope that day is far, far off."

"I do too." Mamoru said quietly to his cup as he took a sip of the overly hot strong black coffee. "I do too."

–

"Usagi!" Naru suddenly halted in the middle of the sidewalk and Usagi took a second to realize her friend wasn't with her and she slowed to a stop too. Looking around for whatever startled her redheaded friend. "I just realized! Tonight is the official opening of my mother's shop!"

"Oh..." Usagi's eyes lit up. "I love her store!"

"She's going to have a major sale for the first to come and that means tonight only. If you want something you'll only get tonight as a chance to buy it."

"I don't know..." Usagi's eyes dimmed and her chin lowered. "The way you made it sound, well, that's after curfew and I have to be home by then."

"Not to worry, mom said she'd have guards on the premise. And the usual precautions."

"My mom would never let me out." Usagi hedged. There was absolutely no way Tsukino Ikuko would allow her daughter to roam the streets unattended at night.

"Then improvise and be creative."

"Weren't you just saying that rule breakers never learn? That there's consequences to actions like that?" Usagi teased.

"Yeah, but that's when they want to be out all night and go someplace they shouldn't. This is a sanctioned event. There's no risk involved." Naru turned pleading eyes onto her face and she gave in.

"All right, I'll be there."

"Yes!" Naru squealed and hugged Usagi. "Now lets get off the streets and have some of your mom's awesome pie!"

Usagi laughed thinking if she didn't make herself fat, Naru would be the spearheader to make it happen. Usagi looped arms with her friend and they ran the rest of the way home.

–

Usagi said a short goodbye to her friend promising she'd see her soon on a whisper while saying quite loudly that she'd see her on Monday.

Ikuko was waiting for Usagi just inside the doorway, making Usagi jump a mile high. "Mom, you've scared me!"

"You've got homework to do." Ikuko reminded her, pushing the backpack into her arms. "Do it now until your father comes home."

"All right, all right." Usagi trudged towards the stairs. "I'll do it in my room."

–

All the lights in the house switched off from the maintainer in Tokyo General. All the lights in the houses in the city flickered off and ones on the street turned on to a dim glow. There were still people prowling around the roads but slower than before and quite a bit fewer in number.

Usagi looked out the window at them and took a deep steadying breath before climbing onto the tree just beyond her reach. The trunk was actually on the other side of the wall to her house's courtyard, and her room was on the side to the street. If she climbed down this tree she could reach the street easily enough without alerting anyone.

Then when she came home, she could climb it once more to get back into her room. She hung onto the base of it for a long time before stealing her nerves and slowly making her way down. Once she felt the ground beneath her, she ran the entire way to Naru's mother's jewelery shop, avoiding the people on the street as she did so. She made sure to give them all a wide berth and to not go by any dark alleys.

She stumbled once and almost fell flat on her face but she managed to catch herself before that happened and continued on her sprint. The guards outside the shop gave her a look but allowed her to enter anyway and she passed the detector easily enough. She breathed out a sigh of relief as she entered the safety of a store.

Inside it gleamed and glittered and there were women everywhere with sparkles in their ears and along their necks among other places. Serena sighed as she looked upon the beauty of it all. It was all to rare these days to find beauty in anything.

Usagi found Naru quickly and they squealed and looked at all of the jewelery together, not leaving one single piece free from an awe or ooh. They heard a noise and all heads picked up to see a man try to enter but was refused entrance. The guards grabbed him by the arms and hauled him away and out of sight. Usagi swallowed hard and even when Naru attempted to get her attention over the next piece, Usagi had trouble shaking off the feeling. Somehow this all seemed pointless and superficial after that. She couldn't muster up the joy in the jewelery anymore.

"I think I'm going to go home." Usagi said after awhile of pretending to be interested and Naru had seen her waning attention.

"All right." Naru agreed. "Did you want to buy anything first?"

Usagi glanced over all of the displays, not really seeing them, she had liked something and had made a note but now she couldn't recall what it was. "I- I don't know. Was there something you'd pick for me?"

"I remember that you lingered over this one, and I think it's quite gorgeous." Naru went behind the counter and picked out a necklace. On the end of the delicate chain was the symbol for the Earth sitting on the bottom portion of a half moon as if in a delicate balance, floating and in the center where all fours met in the Earth was a blossoming white rose, the stem wrapped around the lines like a vine and then wrapped around the moon too with thorns and small blossoms in red. Usagi couldn't look away and all other thoughts disappeared as she looked upon it. "So? What do you think?"

Usagi blinked and looked up at Naru uncomprehending for a second and then she cleared her throat. "Excuse me?"

"What do you think? Do you want it?" Naru swung it almost hypnocially in front of her and Usagi nodded.

"Yes, yes I do." For some reason this necklace symbolized so much to her. She caught it in mid swing and let the chain drape along the edge and back of her hand, the ornament in her palm. "I will never let it out of my sight."

"Jeez Usa-chan, you don't have to wear it all the time on my account." Naru teased and wrung her up. "It's 10,000 Yen."

Usagi took out the notes Naru needed and smiled tentatively at her. "I'll see you later?"

Naru agreed. "Be safe Usa-chan. Do you need an escort home?"

"No, I'll be all right, I stick to main streets."

"Ok... Call me in the morning?"

Usagi forced a bright smile onto her face. "Of course! Talk to you then!"

Women had come and gone while Usagi had been there and so she was just another among the customers. She slipped out the door with one last wave at friend and her mother. Then bundling up a bit more, she started her quick pace home. She stuck to the main streets as she'd intended but then there was a moment where she could no longer follow them, not without passing several people and she couldn't keep a wide berth from all of them. With a quickened heart and an instant decision, Usagi cut through one of those alleyways, it looked larger than the regular ones and was actually lit up.

All she was planning to do was cut a street over and then follow that one until the next main street and then return to her intended path home.

She misjudged her knowledge of this particular area, for she found herself in an area with four alleys splitting off from hers and not one clear choice. She swallowed hard and angled back towards where she had been before. Surely by now she was passed all of those people on the street.

The path she took went for a ways straight and then it was blocked off by a building but she could turn right and so she did, only to run into a high chain-link fence. She tried to calm her heart and turned around, she'd find her way out of this mini-maze. There was a pile off to her left as she turned around and she darted passed it, not knowing what could be there, especially as it moved.

She rounded that corner again and saw someone walking passed the entrance to her alley. She stepped back slowly, trying not to draw attention to herself and prayed that the person would continue walking by, that they wouldn't come down this way. She wasn't so lucky, just as it was about to pass, it froze and slowly turned her way. She had nowhere to go, but it was better to keep backing up. She'd preferred her chances behind her than to face this one head on.

In the back of her mind she was trying to make a plan but she was too terrified to really get anywhere, her thoughts kept returning to the fact that she was trapped and the person was coming her way. She'd be completely trapped in seconds. Her eyes scanned her surroundings but she couldn't even find anything to climb and get out of the way, not even a fire escape.

It was in this state that she tripped over the pile that she had taken care to avoid earlier. She let out a tiny shriek as she flailed and fell backwards onto her bottom. She heard a groan and she scrambled back to her feet and away before the mound could do anything, but already she had spent too long with it. There were now two people back here! She let out a small mewl of protest, not intending to make a sound but it still slipped out. "Quiet!" The pile hissed as it slowly unfurled. "You'll bring attention-!" But he was facing her and he wasn't much older than her, out of public schooling, but not for too long... and the person coming down the alley after her reached out and grabbed him.

Teeth sank into his neck and she whimpered as she realized she had just caused this. She could either try to bolt around them or continue backwards. She made the decision to do the latter. She turned and sprinted to the chain link fence, her hands pressed against the metal and she tried to close her ears off to the moans and screams behind her as he was ate, quite violently too. He wasn't lucky enough for a quick death.

She couldn't find purchase as her hands kept slipping along the smooth surface and her shoes weren't much help either. She had gotten a few feet above the ground when she slipped and fell back to the dirty street below. She scrambled to go up again when her eyes caught something in front of her on the other side. For a second she feared that she'd leave one occupied person and dive into an area with a lot more.

But it wasn't a person. It was a black cat. She blinked and wasted precious time as she realized it was the same black cat as earlier. "Take this." It said and if she wasn't so conditioned to the horrors of this world she might have shrieked at the fact a cat was talking to her as a beam shot out of its head and produced from nowhere a round... thing. It didn't project very far and it fell onto the ground just beyond the fence on the cat's side.

Usagi stuck her hand through and stretched her fingers as far as she could to grab it, they barely brushed. "A little help?" She asked but the cat shook its head.

"I can't touch it before you claim it as your own." It told her and Usagi whipped her head around when she realized that there were no more cries coming from behind her.

Usagi saw that the... woman... was done with the boy on the street and its attention was turned onto her. Usagi pressed against the fence her face gaining lines with how much she did so, wondering if she was insane to take this as it wasn't going to help her kill this woman. But if a talking cat gives you advice, you take it, don't you? Especially if that same talking cat suddenly produces something magically. Her leaning against the fence helped as it allowed her to move it slightly and she was able to get her hand around the object the cat had put there. She managed to slide it out towards her and she picked it up. "Hurry!" The cat yelled.

The words whispered themselves to her, words she'd never heard before and it wasn't with her ears that she heard them. She felt her arm lift up into the air on its own accord and the words were out of her mouth before she knew it. "Moon... Prism Power... Make-Up!"

For a second nothing happened, and then from within her chest a bright light exploded and it covered her torso then slithered along her arms and legs and up her neck over her face. Her clothing disappeared to be replaced with something else entirely, something that would life eyebrows here and was actually pretty impractical. She would have thought for sure that it would at least give her full body armor, like the police and hired guards had. Instead it was a short mini skirt over a skin tight leotard and pointless excess fabric at her shoulders and down her back, oh and gloves and a pair of high heeled boots.

Other than that, she felt no different.

She barely had time to register these things before the woman's face was in hers. The disgusting, corroding, bloody face. Usagi cowered back and screamed. She couldn't help it, she curled in on herself and held her arms up to protect her face, not that it would matter in the end, if she got bit, she got bit. Fingers dug into her arms and the hot mouth covered a limb with teeth exposed. Usagi clenched her eyes to avoid watching it, the pain would be enough.

She felt the pressure but she didn't feel the surprisingly sharp for the dead and decaying teeth puncture anything. The mouth continued, well mouthing might fit here, but it felt more like gumming or when kids were just getting their teeth in, well, she supposed teething might be a more accurate term for it. The woman kept teething at her arm and Usagi kept screaming.

It wasn't her fault, really. She was so immersed in what would happen if caught out at night by one of these creatures. Either you were dead within seconds if you were lucky, within minutes if you were unfortunate, or you'd be bitten and manage to get away, bleeding and slowly dying but not knowing it other than mentally. You could go for days, turning, but they never wanted to take that chance. That's why they had the detectors, to learn if the person had been bit or scratched or infected in someway and to head it off before they turned.

Usagi didn't want to turn. She didn't want to die here either. If she didn't turn or die here, then she'd have to face her next fate. Being caught and shot in the head while still alive or waited out, depending how vindictive the shooter was.

"Girl! Girl!" There was a female voice shouting at her from somewhere amidst the chaos of her own mind and what was happening in front of her. "You're protected from the bites in this form! But you have to do something!"

Usagi was slowly starting to realize that herself and was slowly deescalating from the sheer panic that had taken her over. The longer this lasted, the more her head cleared. She was still terrified of what was going on and the situation she'd found herself in. "Like what?" She finally grunted out, batting away at the woman attempting to eat her, she managed to push the woman a few feet away so she had breathing space again.

"Use your tiara, it will take care of this." The female voice commanded, not at all worried about the creatures, probably because she was a cat and these people didn't seem to be interested in anything but humans.

Usagi's hand patted up her face until she found an odd shape and texture on her forehead, sure enough, there was a tiara there. Her hands slid around it, looking for a clasp or the back of it so she could figure out a way to take it off. In the end, she went back to the front and just pinched it, pulling it forward as she did so. The tiara was no wider than her forehead and she frowned at it, wondering how it stayed at all.

She turned it around in her hands, it was mostly gold, a color she didn't think suited her in most cases, silver was better for her skin tone. In the center was a ruby jewel, she tried pressing it, thinking it activated the tiara to become some sort of weapon. But nothing happened, it didn't stretch and turn into a sword or a hammer or anything that could be remotely useful, not even a knife. What was she supposed to do? Turn it on its side and just hope that one of the points on it would go into this woman's head?

She was completely ignoring the woman who turned back to gnaw on the man once more, finding whatever meat was left on this corpse that wouldn't rise again. Usagi blanched and felt sick. She had to concentrate on breathing only through her mouth and not her nose so her stomach wouldn't roll further.

What was she doing, standing around and looking at a tiara in a ridiculous outfit when she should be at home in bed? The only explanation for this craziness and completely impossible situation, including the cat, was that she was at home, in bed having a nightmare as all of the stories caught up to her and she created this situation instead of what would really happen. Or she was dead. Either way, it was messed up and had to be in her head. There was absolutely no way any of this was real.

Perhaps she'd seen too many Zombie movies when she was little, those had been a pretty big deal back then. Now they were on the research channel as theories on how to kill these creatures but were told to leave it to the authorities unless you were absolutely with your back against the wall. They didn't want to aggravate the ones they hadn't found yet and have a complete mess on their hands. Not that this current situation was all that great. There was at least 10% of the population turned already another 10 dead and a third 10 too afraid to leave their homes and the numbers were only growing.

"Stop dinking around already, you know the things you need to do. What happened, have you already been turned? That's the only explanation I can have for why you seem so dim-witted about all this."

Usagi felt her ire grow towards the cat. If this was a dream she'd be sure to kick it after she dealt with this woman. If it wasn't, well, she'd never do that sort of thing. She tried to pinch herself but while she got an angry red mark for her troubles, it didn't hurt as much as it should have. "So I am dreaming?"

"No." The cat hissed and tried to take a swipe at her ankle through the fence. That was a failed idea before it even began, she couldn't reach her, there were boots in her way, oh and there was this magical shield over her entire body that protected her from any sort of penetration.

"That's just what a dream would say."

"Stop messing about, I swear I hope the other senshi aren't as fluffy headed as you are. How could you forget what to do?"

The cat drew attention to it, the woman was now joined by a few other creatures, all in varying stages of decomposing and some had bones sticking out through the skin, others had no mean on them so were just, literally skin and bones but still somehow managed to slug their way towards her. "Shut up." Usagi hissed at the cat. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" If she was repeating herself, it was because her fear just came back three-fold. She didn't know what would happen if more than one of them attacked her.

She started shaking the tiara, hoping for something to happen. "It'd be nice if you gave me some kind of pointer." Usagi finally admitted her need for help, well not so much admitted as realized she'd need to say it to get the cat to realize it herself, that Usagi wasn't going to magically recall what she was supposedly was supposed to know.

"Oh. Um... I'm not sure either. Each girl is different." The cat was very unhelpful and Usagi pressed against the chains once more, her back to it and her hands groping behind her to find purchase. It was easier with the gloves and she wondered if she could climb it backwards, or if she turned around to climb if it would make much difference. Either way, she was getting out of here, forget the damn tiara.

They were close, much too close and Usagi hadn't climbed the fence at all, but her feet were off the ground as she somehow thought that would help, like that game of lava. If you didn't touch the floor you were safe. Or if you were in a bed with the blanket drawn over your head and all of your limbs were within the rectangle of the bed, nothing could touch you. Usagi shook the fence with her hands, oh how she wished she were in bed with a blanket drawn over her head. At home she was safe. Not in this wonderland she'd found herself in.

Then one went down and stayed down.

Usagi's eyes widened and she stared at it. It had been the one closest to her and sticking out of its forehead was a pure blue rose. An impossible color for an impossible night. She ignored that for now, and instead frowned. She did not understand, did they start growing roses out of their heads after awhile? That whole circle of life thing? Your remains are ate and turned to dirt and fertilized the ground for plants, but this just skipped a whole bunch of steps instead? Kind of like the whole coming back to life as a corpse. The walking undead.

"MOVE!" A voice roared and she jumped so high that when she clutched at the fence again, her feet were easily above the creature's heads. Her fingers tightened and were unable to release as more of them fell, more flowers sticking out of their heads. No, not flowers but one kind, all blue roses. It didn't take long, perhaps seconds before all of the creatures were on the ground, now permanently dead without a chance of being reanimated.

Still she did not move, she did not step down into that pile of Zombies for fear that one didn't have its brain disrupted and would turn and bite her and happen to find the one spot she could possibly be vulnerable in.

She couldn't even look up to see who had yelled at her, for the voice had come from above.

Sensing movement, she thought whoever it was was going to leave and never return. She jerked in surprise when there was a hand on her arm. Her head turned to see a man in an outfit probably as improbable as hers and the fantasy of many young females dreaming of grandeur. His face was half hidden but what she could see of it, there was concern. "Are you all right?"

She couldn't find her voice for a moment and when she tried to speak there was only a squeak in response. She was shocked and a little embarrassed by her reaction and tried to clear her throat. This time when she spoke she was still faint. "I... I think so."

"Can you move?" He was perched haphazardly on a stoop of the building closest to her and it didn't look like a very steady position. She didn't even bother speaking this time, she only pried her stiff fingers from the wire and nodded. He removed his hand from her arm and she almost protested, somehow that had been helping, allowing her to move passed her fear and without it, she was frozen up again. But he only held it out to her as a means to help her get higher and then over it so she didn't have to go into that rot smelling infestation.

She took it and he pulled her up into his arms, and instead of dangling her down so she could land on her feet he jumped off the roof to her cringe. Usagi clung onto the man in fear, they were both going to die or suffer painful injuries that would leave them handicapped. Her eyes squeezed shut but when no pain entered her body she realized they'd landed gracefully and he was perfectly all right. She looked up in wonder and amazement, not at him, but the height of the ledge they had just been on. That was at least ten feet.

Now he finally set her back onto her feet and put her at arms distance away from him. He spun her slowly around, his hands lifting up her hair, or her skirt or the flap at her back. Only when he lifted her skirt did she try to protect whatever modesty it kept hidden. Really with how short it was, it might have been better not to have one at all, at least a one-piece bathing suite was easier to explain. "I'm checking you for marks."

"I'm fine." Usagi protested, knowing it was somehow true, most likely, probably. Eh, she couldn't know for sure, but there was a strong feeling in her gut that she was right.

"I'm just making sure. Can't have my efforts to save you go by the wayside because I didn't get there fast enough." But he eventually stopped turning her, with his hands on her shoulders and his eyes so powerful behind the mask that shielded the knowledge of what color they could be. She was pretty sure they were a dark brown or a black if she was able to gauge the color correctly through the slight one-way shield. "You're fine."

"I told you that." She mumbled, not sure what had just happened and she was still reeling from all that she'd witnessed.

"That's good because now I can kill you myself." His tone turned from soft and gentle to a roar of anger so quickly that she flinched back but he didn't let her go. "What were you thinking, coming out here dressed like this? You saw Sailor V do it in England and decided you'd try it out yourself? Tokyo doesn't need a vigilante, the authorities are handling things their own way. You're going to get yourself killed drawing so much attention to yourself. I could have been anywhere today and I wouldn't have been able to save you. Go home, get some sleep and go back to school like a good student. God, you can't be more than fifteen!"

She was actually seventeen, but he probably wouldn't want to hear the correction. "It wasn't like that, I wasn't trying-"

"To get yourself killed? No, probably not, but that's what happens when foolish girls wander around the streets alone at night. There's police trying to clear up the streets but its harder to find them at night and more are created by people with the same thoughts you're having, trying to push their limits! I can assure you, you're not alone in your ideals of emulating a heroine in a foreign country, but I have a pretty big hunch that she's just a poster and there's a group of well trained soldiers doing it instead. It's a pretty picture, but highly unlikely. Do yourself a favor and stay off the streets!"

Usagi was unaccustomed to being raged at in quite this way, he just kept going and wouldn't let her get a word in edge wise. If she did manage to say something he didn't hear, cut her off and continued down another path on her ignorance and foolishness. Perhaps he was just venting about all the stupid people in Tokyo, but it felt pretty personal to her and she didn't even know him, much less the other way around.

She even started tuning him out as she looked around. Usagi was pretty sure he said something recently along the lines of "Leave it to the professionals!" Then her eyes caught the fact that they were dragging even more attention their way when all she wanted was to be at home sleeping.

"Look out!" She pushed him down and acted on impulse, and surprisingly when it wasn't only herself to save, she found what she didn't know before how to do. The tiara was still in her hand and she whipped it around and she was going to just toss it at them, hoping her strength and impact would be enough to break into the head somewhat. But words followed her actions. "Moon tiara... action!"

The tiara flung out of her hand and went spiraling towards the zombie-fied humans and it was like a discus, spinning round and round in an almost nauseating pattern, not quite in a circle or even that smooth and there was a trail of color following it like phantom energy. It sliced through one of their heads and the zombie fell before turning into ash, then on the way back to her, now more like a boomerang than discus, it sliced through another's stomach, cutting it clean in half, the top sagging to the ground. At least it couldn't walk anymore and the legs wouldn't do anything. She mused somewhat numbly.

But people would walk to the top half not realizing it could still bite and damage. Seconds after the tiara returned to her hand, that one too turned into dust. "Huh." She stated dumbly as she held out a hand to help the man back to his feet. "Dusted."

He was looking at her with new respect. "Perhaps I had been a tad too harsh before. You have more ability to protect yourself than I had originally thought. You should have said something."

"You and me both, buster." She was still trying to catch up to his about face and apology. "I didn't know I had it in me."

"Well thank you anyway, you might have saved my life." He turned to leave, but he hesitated. "Will you get home all right?"

"Between the two of us?" She paused meaningfully. "I'm probably more likely to."

He chuckled and bowed slightly towards her. "Until the next time. Just... don't do anything rash, you might have gotten lucky this time and I wouldn't mind seeing you around more often." Then he vanished into the night, blending seamlessly into his surroundings.

Looking into the nothing like she was, was a good salve to her emotions and helped to settle her but she turned her head slightly and her faint imagining that this was all an illusion vanished as she caught the remains of his kills. But even as she watched the roses burst into blue flames and devoured the previous humans and then in a puff of smoke there was nothing but dark ash to her silver piles.

She turned and wretched. She dumped all of the contents of her stomach from all of the meals she'd had over the day and then some onto the sidewalk. She was still heaving when she felt something butt up against her arm. For a second a cold wash of fear settled over her once more, thinking a hand or a head somehow got close to her but when her eyes focused, she saw the cat.

"Go on, go home, take a shower. Things will look better after one and a good night's sleep. I'll take care of this."

Usagi stumbled onto her feet, feeling light-headed and wanting to crash head first into the nearest wall. She didn't know how a cat was going to clean up her DNA evidence but she didn't want to know either. Thankfully it wasn't as disgusting as she'd imagined, the cat just used her powers to rid the scene of it, putting it into lala land instead.

With absolutely no idea how she got home or if she could reverse her transformation, she showered and collapsed into her bed. As she slept, her clothes shifted back into the ones she had worn while sneaking out of the house and could be seen in public in. Something warm and soft slept by her head and her nose would brush and accidentally bury into it, pulling away to sneeze and rub it, then sleep some more. All without ever waking up enough to realize what it was.

EAN: Again, I'd like to point out, I know a few things aren't canon. Done completely on purpose! Thank you, please review if it isn't to point that out. :) I'd love to hear what you have to say about these last... 10 pages...