Okay, my first story, bit scary, really. I know it's short - it's meant to be. I a) didn't feel a need to express the relationship between the senshi, and b) wanted Usagi to seem distant.

This story is supposed to be manga based, but some of it runs into the anime... sorry!

Disclaimer: We all know this... I don't own Sailormoon... XD

"Usagi-chan, are you okay?" The lights blared, and every insignificant squeak of floorboard was amplified, sending a chilling ringing sensation down the young woman's spine. Walls coyly wrapped themselves around her in mock slowness, the words on the page before her playing cruel, twisting tricks. She couldn't feel her fingers, wrists, ankles, calves; every movement lacked feeling, relied on automatic function. Her blue eyes narrowed lightly, as though she were about to drift off into sleep, however, as the other grabbed at her lank wrist, Usagi bolted upright.

"Oh… Ami-chan, when did you get here?" The first asked outright, eyes widening in sudden realization, long blond hair fluttering about her face, tied in two messy buns atop her head. In her surprise, she'd brought her knees up, causing the table at which the two sat to tumble, paper flying in every direction. The other blinked innocently, as a pencil struck her at the crown of her blue-haired head, giving her reason to do little more than wince. "Ami-chan! I'm sorry… I thought I'd grown out of that…"

A silence ensued, one in which, Usagi, having judged the tension, dropped to her knees and piled endless papers, paying little attention to the subject on each. "You seem… distant, Usagi-chan. I know math isn't your favorite; however, I think you need to loosen up, even if final examinations are only a week away. Maybe the arcade, you haven't seen Minako-chan in quite a while, to my understanding." She stood, straightened the skirt to her school uniform unconsciously, motioning toward the door.

"Rei-chan…" Usagi whispered longingly as the two passed the Hikawa Jinja. The sign seemed to set out into the sidewalk, its woven character's catching the light of the setting sun ominously. Usagi closed her eyes with a grief-stricken wistful sigh, "I've taken so much time studying for these exams, I haven't seen Rei-chan lately, and I miss her so much… I almost wish we had senshi business, just so I could see everybody once in a while. We haven't been all together for a good two years." A single tear threatened to overthrow her serenity.

"So sentimental, Usagi-chan!" A slightly taller girl cried happily, hugging Usagi from behind until the former teetered on her unsteady heels. Rei laughed, violet eyes sparkling, and teased ruthlessly, "I missed you to, Odango!" Finally glancing upward, she waved at Ami, still stretched across Usagi's back as the first raindrop fell to her nose. "Ami-chan." She acknowledged before falling back on her heels, grabbing both Ami's and Usagi's wrists, and pulling them up the street.

"Motsu to deaiga hayakerebato, Ii wake bakari mitsuketeru…" Usagi hummed lightly beneath her breath, smiling softly to herself in recollection of years past, things she'd done, people she'd known. She'd found herself a cup of coffee, and silently stirred it between her hands, drinking in the warmth, were as the liquid was left untouched. She watched the dapple of cream she'd put in swirl atop the mass of black, and to some degree, the twirl took over her entire mind.

"Chaos, Queen Metallia, Death Phantom, Pharaoh 90, Nephrenia, and Galaxia, I know now, why you were seeking my power. It is the same as the feeling that I seek for the ones I love, and my friends. We are all stars alone. We meet our desire, wanting to be as one. As one. That is how we begin. And now I, too, will seek you. I will envelop you. Inside this Cauldron, to save everything. " She could distantly remember saying that, once, and now the very cream in her coffee shoved it back into her face.

The café was crowded, full of those avoiding the sudden downpour, and among the mess of civilians, Rei had tracked Makoto and Minako. They'd sat at one table, the other four participating in an overly active conversation, including massive hugs and giggles over recent news. Usagi hadn't noticed their arrival; there was nothing but the ivory cream and the growing mass of black enveloping it. She could see herself, throwing away her mortal life into the cauldron, and then suddenly, an image of herself walking to school. What had been in the middle? She couldn't remember. All she could see were the memories drowning in her coffee.

The droning voice of Chaos pierced her mind, "Your coming here was destiny. Where there is light, there is darkness. The darkness calls to the light, and the light calls again to the darkness. Our destiny matches. As before, when everything was one here, the time has now come again for light and darkness to join hands! Soldier of the galaxy's strongest light, Sailormoon! Give me your power now! At last, my long awaited wish has come, for me to rule the entire universe instead of this Cauldron!"

"Usagi-chan, are you listening to me? Usagi-chan?" She jolted up, eyes wide staring unseeingly at Minako, breathing heavily, and quite audibly. She could feel the single tear welling beneath her eyelashes, and couldn't comprehend why it was there; she'd accepted her past, or perhaps it was pity.
She felt overwhelming pity for something that couldn't be, something that couldn't cry, someone who couldn't give up, couldn't back away. "The green or the orange, Usagi-chan?"

"What? Oh, Mako-chan, Minako-chan, I haven't seen you in a while. Those are so cute, where did you get them?" She fingered the two knee-length skirts Makoto held in either hand, smiling as though she hadn't understood the question, nor what had just passed. "Mako-chan, that green one would suit you so well, it's your color, really." Usagi glanced between each stunned face stupidly, her smile fading as she passed from Ami to Rei to Makoto to finally rest on Minako.

Minako raised one eyebrow in silent question; Makoto cocked her head to the side, placing a finger on her rosy lips. Rei took a slightly surprised look, starting from her forehead and rounding over her cheekbones, Ami, however, didn't take the slightest unnerve. "Usagi-chan, did you hear Mina-chan's question? At all? Did you know that Mako-chan and Minako-chan were here at all?" Looking dazed, Usagi shook her head slowly, clutching the plastic coffee cup toward her chest.

The lights flickered unexpectedly, shrouding the café in darkness before resuming a single light on a young girl. This gained nothing, save the attention of every being throughout the room; Ami's eyes were the first to narrow under suspicion. Lights blaring, as though they screamed, began to light atop every civilian, save those beside Usagi. Slowly, each human dropped to his or her knees, eyes wide staring unblinkingly toward the ceiling, before collapsing to the floor.

Shuddering, Usagi stood, shoving the coffee across the table until it spilled hap hazardously against the red leather seats. Quite suddenly, she couldn't see anything, nor feel the presence of those around her, she'd become paralyzed, yet still knew she stood. Rei shoved her out the nearby door as she remained stationary, and she crumpled to kneel and support her back against the wall, but still with the ability to hear. She wanted to move, more than anything in the world, her mind actively willed her arm to rise, but it remained limp beside her.

"Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Mars Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Venus Crystal Power, Make Up!"

Eyes wide, Usagi's heart shattered, yet somehow she managed to grab at the brooch, forever resting against her breast. She momentarily felt the careful curve of the heart, and each individual crystal, representing each guardian planet. Usagi fiddled with it momentarily, throwing away the sudden feeling of despair blossoming in each of her limbs and instead put her efforts into meekly tossing the brooch, "Silver Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!"

A small pulse of light emitted, before failing, as the compact fell earthward to land with a dim clutter against the pavement. Usagi stared dumbly, regaining her composure only enough to throw herself toward the brooch, and fumble with the latch, reassuring herself of the crystal's unwavering existence. It was most certainly there, with its unmatched brilliance, save the fact it flickered, it molded to her hand, as though it were melting. The mark of her very soul was changing.

She blinked in sudden panic, and as her eyelids rose once more, the crystal was unchanged, its lotus shape carved solidly. Breathing heavily, panic coursing through her blood, she raised it once more, "Silver Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!" This time it did little more than fall, and to Usagi's disbelief, the center cracked viciously, attacking the first four gems implanted in its rounded surface. The crashes that had consistently sounded behind her abruptly stopped, and her eyes widened in horror.

"P-Pharaoh 90… b-but… Wait! It's real!" Usagi confined her breath within her chest until it burned, the silence growing in her defiant response to the battles within. Her back tensed as she grew another quick breath as a crash erupted inside the café, followed by the strained voice of Ami, "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" She couldn't force herself to her feet, nor could she begin to try another vain attempt at transformation – Usagi had been pushed into listening to a loosing battle.

"Don't play the fool you're not, Mercury! This thing can't be Death Phantom! Mercury? Mercury!" Usagi winced, and shifted slightly until the comfort of her knees met her chest, and she hugged herself bitterly, feigning tears. It had been Makoto who had spoken, who would be the next to fall, for that was what was surely happening; Ami carried not the power to defeat a reborn Pharaoh 90. "Jupiter Oak Evolution!" Her heart stung, for neither Ami nor Makoto had spoken since their attacks, whereas Minako and Rei had.

"Jupiter! Mercury! No! No! No! Metallia couldn't have… but…" Usagi had been reduced to whimpers, closing her eyes, allowing the sudden bout of paralysis to overtake her. The very unknowing of what was happening gnawed at her, and she cursed her compact's very existence, it's insolence toward her needs – the crystal's insolence. "Venus Love Beauty Shock!" That left Rei, with the possibility of Mars against, at the very least, three pieces of Chaos.

"No… I can't fight you… No." Despair, hurt, emotion flooded Rei's voice, and the first tear struck Usagi's rain-soaked face, the darkness shrouding her vision once again. "That can't be you; you'd never… would you? Were you trying to tell us that? Was that why you wouldn't reply?" Usagi's eyes snapped open at these words; it couldn't possibly be herself in that room, she stood – sat – her ground outside. "No, you'll just have to destroy me; I could never raise a hand to you, Usagi-chan."

Not really a cliffhanger, but it works. I'm not sure I liked the way this came out, I'll probably end up rewriting it at some point... Chapter 2 sometime over the weekend...