ChibiUsa Times Two

by Tuxedo Will

People should be careful how they wield powerful magic objects. Can Usagi undo the damage she caused?

Chibi-Usa Times Two
By Douglas Helm and "Tuxedo" Will Wolfshohl

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon®, Sailor Senshi, and all terms, names, etc. associated with the series are copyrighted by Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha. We make no claim to them and this work of fanfiction should not be seen as making a claim.

Those characters that are original and the story "Chibi-Usa Times Two" are copyrighted ©1997 ShoujoFiction .com domain by Douglas Helm & Will Wolfshohl. Revised in September 2001.

The latest update of this story and dozens of our other stories reside at ShoujoFiction dot com. Comments are welcomed.

# # #

Chapter 1 "Rabbit's Trap"

'It just isn't fair!'

That particular thought ran through fourteen year old Usagi's mind as she lay fully awake in bed. Through bloodshot eyes, she once more looked at the clock on the headboard of her bed. If she got to sleep right now, she'd just manage to have three hours of sleep. Usagi could feel the reason for the thought that was keeping her awake snuggled up against her.

'Now I'll fall asleep in class again and Haruna-sensei will give me ANOTHER detention because of her. Even worse, I have to be extra sweet to her because if I don't, Mom hits the roof and I wind up doing stuff I already hate to do...' Usagi internally winced as she remembered having to clean her room today instead of going to the arcade. 'And THEN, I have to share my bed with this FUNGUS who seems to think I'm some sort of substitute teddy bear! I'm a grown woman for Kami's sake! Why do I have to share a bed like I was HER little sister or something?'

Suppressing the whine that wanted to escape, Usagi continued to look at the wall. 'It just isn't fair!'

# # # # #

Another week of sleepless nights was catching up with Usagi. One more day of dozing in class and yet another day of detention... Usagi heaved a mighty sigh as she trudged towards the meeting. She knew she was late but figured running wouldn't help matters. 'Rei's gonna go ballistic all because of that spore!' she thought hotly, 'That spore's been around me nearly three months, and all she's done is make ME miserable!'

After forcing her foul mood as deep as she could, Usagi climbed the Hikawa Shrine steps. 'The others think I'm exaggerating... Rei wouldn't think that if she had been dating Mamoru and that fungus broke them up!'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was happy... sort of. It wasn't so bad in the past. She still hadn't found the Ginzuishou. She knew that Usagi had it. 'But where'd that baka Odango Atama hide it?' This puzzled Chibi-Usa. She just couldn't figure out where a baka like Usagi would hide something where her obviously superior intelligence couldn't find it. She had searched for months now in vain.

Turning the corner, Chibi-Usa heard a whistle. 'Where did that come from?' she wondered as she looked around. Then she saw him floating above... Rubeus! Spinning on her heel, Chibi-Usa started to run down the now deserted street.

"What luck! I hadn't been looking for you but you obliged me by delivering yourself to me! And it isn't even my birthday!" Rubeus crowed, a feral grin spreading across his face.

Turning another corner, Chibi-Usa finally was forced to a sudden stop as she ran head first into a small brick wall. Bouncing back, she landed with a thump on her backside. Hearing Rubeus' laugh, she opened her eyes and looked directly into his dark heart. Letting out a scream of fright, her crescent moon sigil burned brightly and shot a beam into the darkening sky.

Rubeus at first was surprised and temporarily blinded by this development. When his vision cleared, he noticed that his prey had started to scramble over the low wall she'd run into.

"Not this time, Rabbit! I've got a snare for you!" With that, dark energy streamers shot from Rubeus' hands and began to encircle Chibi-Usa making her stick to the wall. "I see I should have handled this myself instead of relying on those baka Sisters!"

Chibi-Usa struggled against the energy bonds as Rubeus stalked towards her. She could see the gleam of anticipation in his eyes as he grew closer. That's when she heard the voice, that voice that sounded so familiar to her...

"Depriving a girl of her sleep! How low can you go? In addition to being healthy, a good sleep keeps a girl looking good. I am the Pretty Sailor-suited Senshi, SAILOR MOON. For depriving ME of my beauty sleep, in the name of the Moon, I WILL PUNISH YOU!"

'Sailor Moon's starting to sound like Odango Atama,' Chibi-Usa thought, 'But at least, it got him thinking about something else besides me.'

Giving a snarl, Rubeus whirled around. "Come on out! I've caught one Rabbit... I can certainly trap the others."

"Up here!"

Rubeus swung his head up to see the Sailor Senshi standing atop a nearby building. Raising his hands, Rubeus released a dark sphere of energy rushing toward the group of Senshi who easily dodged it.

"BURNING MANDALA!" Mars shouted out. Her attack missed Rubeus when he flitted out of existence and reappeared in midair.

"Hey watch it, pyro!" the child shouted indignantly, "I wanna live to see my next birthday!" Mars just snarled at the remark.

"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!" Jupiter called out and sent her attack flying towards Rubeus. It missed but managed to hollow out a section of wall.

"I'll be back, Rabbit!" Rubeus snarled and then teleported away.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, are you all right?" Sailor Moon asked as she rushed forward. Then noticing the girl was injured. 'Oh Kami-sama, she's hurt!' "Where'd you get that bruise?"

Chibi-Usa raised her hand to feel a bump on her forehead starting to form. "Oh... must be from when I ran into the wall." She winced slightly as her hand brushed across the forming bruise. "I'll be okay though. Arigato."

"I show indications that Rubeus is returning," Mercury stated calmly.

"Nani?" Jupiter and Venus alarmed asked as they started to watch for possible attacks. Mercury continued her scans.

"I am detecting a low amount of Dark Energy consistent with the energy signature used by the Black Moon Family."

"Where's it coming from... I don't see a thing," Jupiter pointed out. "We're the only ones around. When we got here, the street cleared pretty quickly."

After tapping her minicomputer's keys for a moment, Mercury began to frown. Lowering her VR visor, she started a more intense scan... After a few more seconds, she calmly stated, "Well, I've located the source of the Dark Energy." She waited until everyone was looking at her. "It's coming from Chibi-Usa."

'I knew she was evil! Little spore!' Sailor Moon darkly thought.

"What will it do to me?" the little girl asked worriedly as she latched onto Sailor Moon's leg, tears already forming in her eyes.

"It is a small amount of energy and should be passed out of her body in the same manner any other contaminant would be," she explained clinically.

"Nani?" Sailor Moon and Chibi-Usa queried.

"Since it is such a low amount of Dark Energy, it should have no effect on Chibi-Usa. As it's a foreign agent, it'll be attacked by her body's own defenses and will eventually be expelled." Mercury watched as Sailor Moon and Chibi-Usa chewed on this simplified explanation.

"Why don't you just say what you mean?" Sailor Moon demanded still puzzled. She was too tired to try to muddle through what Mercury said. Chibi-Usa herself had an expression of being unconvinced.

Heaving a sigh, Mercury kneeled down and spoke softly, "Chibi-Usa-chan, don't worry. You'll just poop it out." Mercury immediately blushed in embarrassment.

"Eeewww!" Venus said, "I really didn't need to hear that!"

# # # # #

As Sailors Venus and Jupiter were taking Chibi-Usa home, Mercury pulled the two remaining Sailor Senshi aside. Glancing around, Sailor Mercury made sure that they weren't observed. "Sailor Moon, I want you to watch Chibi-Usa carefully," she almost commanded.

"But why? You said she'd be fine... and there wouldn't be anything to worry about!"

Mars frowned before saying, "Did you lie to her, Mercury? I think you should have told her what's going to happen even if she's just a kid."

"That's just it, I DON'T KNOW," Mercury stated firmly. "We've never encountered this problem before... It could happen just as I told her and it'll work itself out of her system or it could have dangerous side effects on her. There's no way to know for sure with the data currently available." Turning to Sailor Moon who had already transformed back, the blue-haired Senshi reiterated, "Usagi-chan, just keep an eye on her... please?" Her face showed signs of worry.

"Oh... all right." With that, Usagi sprinted away from the two other Senshi who were looking on in wonder.

"She didn't even whine..." Mars slowly commented, "That's incredible..."

# # # # #

Later that night, Usagi was trying to complete the homework assignments that she'd neglected for the past two days. 'Haruna-sensei will give me another detention if I don't get his done.' A light knock at the door gave her an excuse to stop, which she took full advantage of.

When she opened the door, she saw it was Chibi-Usa standing in the hall clutching Luna-P in her arms. "Usagi-chan, can I sleep with you tonight?" the sever year old asked looking up with her big puppy-dog eyes.

The teen was surprised. Usually the spore would simply come into the room and crawl into bed uninvited. 'Well, Ami did say to keep an eye on her and this will give me that chance.' Nodding, she stepped out of the way to let Chibi-Usa in.

The little girl entered the room and proceeded to snuggle under Usagi's covers. "Nani? What are you doing?" she asked.

"Nothing..." Usagi began but it was hopeless. She imagined an angry Haruna-sensei sending her off to detention. She just sighed. She wasn't going to get her homework done in time for school tomorrow. She had enough experience to know that much. She glanced over to the little girl. 'She reminds me of myself at that age.' Turning off the lights, she also slipped in under the covers.

Several hours passed. Chibi-Usa had soon drifted off to sleep but Usagi kept seeing the little girl trapped against the wall by Rubeus in her mind. 'I hope you're all right,' Usagi worried, 'We may fight a lot but what happened today is different.' Sighing again, the teen closed her eyes but she just couldn't fall asleep. Curled up beside her was a child who was lightly snoring. It was going to be a long night. 'It just wasn't fair...' That was the last thought Usagi had before drifting finally off into sleep.

# # # # #

Chapter 2 "Paladin's Hand"

Usagi's eighth grade classmates watched with some fascination as she loudly proclaimed she was asleep, i.e. Usagi was snoring. Haruna-sensei's face contorted into a mask of rage. This had been the fifth time TODAY!

"TSUKINO-SAN!" Haruna-sensei bellowed.

The only reply was the sound of Usagi's snoring. The fourteen year old's head was lolled back, tongue hanging slightly out. She had become the center of attention of all her classmates. It was quite natural for Usagi to fall asleep in class once, maybe even twice but five times?

Clamping a tight grip on her anger, Haruna-sensei stalked towards her oblivious student. When she reached her desk, she reached out and gave the girl a firm shake. After she withdrew her hand, Usagi promptly rolled over and landed face first on the floor prompting a number of giggles. The teacher stared at her class to quiet them.

The class watched for several seconds not quite sure what to do. Then the tired voice floated up to them, "HEY YOU LITTLE SPORE! It's bad enough you have to share my bed with you but you don't have to shove me out of it."

There was a general intake of breath as several students glanced nervously at their teacher who was standing stalk still. When Haruna-sensei spoke, her voice was very calm yet there was definite venom, "And exactly who are you calling a 'little spore'?"

Usagi suddenly popped up and looked around bleary-eyed. Then as exactly where she was dawned on her, her eyes grew large with horror. She quickly scrambled to her feet but didn't dare do anything else. She knew her teacher had said something but wasn't exactly sure what it had been.

"Pardon Sensei?" Usagi queried in a small voice.

"Who are you calling a little spore?" The venom was gone but it was replaced with a definite bite.

'Little spore?' Usagi pondered for a moment and then gulped visibly. "Ah... my cousin."

Haruna-sensei wasn't about to let it go so easily. "And why would you call your cousin a 'little spore'?" Several students suppressed the urge to laugh.

Usagi remained silent staring at the ground for several seconds. Haruna-sensei heaved a sigh and stated, "Fine. Tsukino-san, take your seat, don't plan on going anywhere after school. Not even death would get you out of this detention; I'll be speaking with your parents about this."

Sullenly Usagi took her seat. 'It just wasn't fair! Even when I let her sleep in my bed, I still can't get any sleep!'

# # # # #

"You know," Chibi-Usa began, "That baka Odango Atama really bugs me... I know I'm like way smarter than she is but she can hide the Ginzuishou from me. How can that baka do it?"

Mamoru blinked. He knew Chibi-Usa and Usagi didn't get along but he'd never heard the child say anything that strong. "Chibi-Usa-chan, Usagi isn't that bad."

"Oh yeah?" the girl retorted, "Then why did you smarten up and give up that walking cement head?" Mamoru was rather stunned but the child was on a roll. "Mamo-chan, I need your help with something."

"Nani?" Mamoru asked.

"I know this'll bother you but you like me, ne?"

Mamoru looked suspiciously at Chibi-Usa for a moment before he agreed, "Hai, I do."

"Good. Now my plan is to trade a date with you for the Ginzuishou. She can give me the Ginzuishou and you can well put up with her for say... ten, fifteen minutes. She's sure to do it. Then we can both leave her forever."

Mamoru took the defensive route. "I broke up with Usagi. It's painful enough to be around her. I'm certainly not going to go out on a date with her."

"Please?" Chibi-Usa asked while blinking puppy-dog eyes.

"Iie," Mamoru firmly stated. 'What's gotten into her lately?'

# # # # #

Two days had passed. Usagi was sleeping under a tree in the park. It was the only place that seemed to hold the cure for her insomnia.

Chibi-Usa had become more obnoxious by the day. Her speech and physical stances oozed with contempt towards her fourteen year old cousin. Around her aunt and uncle, it was well hidden and subtle but when they weren't around, it was very plain and open.

Usagi had stoically put up with this. When she complained to her mother, her mother wouldn't hear of it. In fact, Ikuko accused her pigtailed daughter of making it up to distract her. Haruna-sensei had informed Ikuko of Usagi's behavior in class. Eventually this led to Ikuko berating her daughter yet again for the spectacle she made of herself.

Unnoticed by the sleeping Usagi, Chibi-Usa sat in the tree directly above her. Usagi had snuck out of the house and Chibi-Usa was anxious to put her new plan of action into effect. Rubbing her hands in anticipation, she hefted a heavy water-balloon. 'Weapon locked on target.' Grinning, she positioned the watery bomb and released it. 'FIRE!'

The watery projectile found its target perfectly and smacked the dozing teen right in her face. Usagi, caught totally unaware, cried out and looked frantically around. Chibi-Usa, not wanting to give her adversary time to figure out what happened, promptly dropped two more balloons, one after the other.

Both were direct hits, which finally shocked Usagi into action. She sprang up and started to run but managed to trip over a tree root landing face first into the dirt. The little girl grabbed another water-balloon and took aim at Usagi's backside, which was sticking up into the air. "This is too good to be true," she chuckled to herself. 'Weapon locked on NEW target... FIRE!'

With a cry of revenge, Chibi-Usa launched another watery missile. It narrowly missed its mark but managed to soak the lower portion of Usagi's body.

Whirling around with ferocity, the blonde glared at Chibi-Usa. She'd heard Chibi-Usa's cry and now watched as the strawberry-blonde clung to the tree laughing loudly at her drenched cousin.

"When I get a hold of you..." Usagi screamed in rage, "I'm going to..."

She was cut off by Chibi-Usa's sarcastic voice, "You and what army, BAKA ODANGO ATAMA?" With that, she hefted yet another water-balloon and tossed it at Usagi. It squarely hit its mark. 'Another hit!' Usagi's fight or flight instinct took over and she started to run all the while being pelted by Chibi-Usa's accurately placed water bombs. Chibi-Usa gloated as her enemy retreated from the scene of battle.

# # # # #

Rei watched curiously as a dripping wet and thoroughly enraged Usagi stalked up towards her. She was about to make a smart remark to her about being a klutz but wisely refrained when she caught the look of anger in her friend's eyes.

"What happened to you, Usagi?" Rei asked. She hoped Usagi wouldn't take it the wrong way.

Usagi fixed her friend with an icy glare for a moment before replying, "That SPORE! I was sleeping in the park under a tree and that SPORE tossed water-balloons at me! Look what she did to me!"

The priestess' first impulse was to snicker. No sooner had the sound left her mouth than Usagi turned away and started to stalk out of the shrine grounds. Hurrying after her friend, Rei said, "Oh come on, Usagi, it just slipped out..." She suppressed another snicker with difficulty - her friend looked like a drowned 'rabbit'. Every stitch of clothing was soaked through. Her normally beautiful long flowing pigtails were a matted mass of stringy hair. "Ah... Is there something that I could do for you?"

"Rei-chan, I don't suppose you have an extra set of clothing I could have until these dry off?"

"Why come here? I thought you would've gone home."

Usagi sighed heavily, "I couldn't... I snuck out of the house and if I came home like this... I'd be in even more trouble."

"I think we can fix you up, Usagi," the priestess declared guiding the still-dripping girl towards her room.

# # # # #

Luna sighed as she listened to yet another argument between Chibi-Usa and Usagi. She was out on the roof of the Tsukino home but still she found no relief. She had to get away from it for a while. Getting up, she made her way over to Minako's home.

Finding Artemis lazily sunning himself in Minako's bedroom window, she made her way up to him and then from the tree, she pounced onto the dozing cat.

Artemis gave a startled cry of surprise and landed on the floor with a thud. Luna chuckled to herself as Artemis picked himself up and glared hotly at the black cat.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" Artemis growled out, "I was having a great dream!"

"Gomen nasai, Artemis... I've just been having a rough couple of days and I guess I wanted to strike out at something."

The white cat mollified by Luna's explanation nodded and made his way over to his visitor. "Luna, are Usagi and Chibi-Usa still going at it?" he queried as he sat down.

Luna frowned slightly, at least as much as a cat's face could frown, before saying, "Chibi-Usa's been a regular terror. I mean she hardly leaves Usagi alone anymore. Just a couple of days ago, Chibi-Usa water-bombed Usagi in the park. The day after that, Chibi-Usa got together with Shingo and then pretty much had Usagi locked in her room when her mom left them alone for the afternoon. When her mother came home, Usagi got all the blame for the mess that Chibi-Usa had created in the kitchen." Luna's voice had started to rise in irritation. Taking a few deep breaths, Luna continued her story, "And today, Chibi-Usa was bouncing on Usagi's bed and managed to nearly destroy the thing. All the while demanding that if Usagi wanted her to stop that she should hand over the Ginzuishou."

Artemis pondered Luna's words for several seconds before he asked a question that had been nagging him since Minako had told them of their fight with Rubeus. "Could it be the Dark Energy, Luna?"

"It's hard to say..." Luna trailed off in thought for several seconds, "I will drop by Ami's place later today and ask her for her opinion. We don't really know one way or the other. I mean Chibi-Usa was quite rambunctious before... maybe it's just a phase. Maybe Rubeus' attack scared her more than we think and she's starting to get desperate for the Ginzuishou."

"That brings up the another question, 'Why exactly does Chibi-Usa want the Ginzuishou?'"

"I don't know... I truly don't."

# # # # #

Later that night, Ami heard a scratching at her window. When she went to look, she saw Luna patiently waiting. Lifting up the window, she let the cat in. "Luna? What's going on?" Ami asked curiously. Usagi hadn't called and it was unusual that Luna would just show up.

"Ami-chan, I want to talk to you about Chibi-Usa," Luna began. "I'm not exactly sure what's going on. She's becoming quite a menace!"

Ami blinked, "Why?"

"I was over visiting Artemis. When I got home, she decided that she was going to try and hold me for ransom," the black cat declared angrily. "The price for my freedom was the Ginzuishou!"

"I see you escaped unharmed," the teen observed. She sat back down at her desk trying to hide her amusement. Luna walked over and sat in front of the blue-haired teen, tail twitching.

"I left her with a reminder that cats have claws," Luna remarked. "Ami-chan, have you found anything new out from the readings you got on Chibi-Usa and the Dark Energy? Could it be affecting her?"

Ami pulled out her minicomputer and started to tap the keys. A few moments later, she began, "The results are still inconclusive. It was a minimal amount of Dark Energy. It should of dissipated or been excreted by now." After studying the results of her query another moment, she continued, "I don't think Chibi-Usa's behavioral shift is due to the Dark Energy. Probably she's become more desperate for the Ginzuishou. If she hadn't released her energy beam or we'd been delayed, he would've likely captured Chibi-Usa. I think she knows that."

Luna remained silent before saying, more to herself, "I just hope you're right..."

# # # # #

Presetting her minicomputer to autoscan Chibi-Usa, Ami knocked at the Tsukino door. Mrs. Tsukino promptly opened it and invited the girl in. After exchanging greetings, the woman went back to her work.

Ami made her way partially up the stairs before nearly getting knocked back down them by Chibi-Usa fleeing headlong past her in a mad dash to evade impending doom. "GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE SPORE! I'VE GOT A SPANKING WITH YOUR NAME ON IT!" With that enraged yell, Usagi came bolting out of her room but stopped short when she saw her friend standing there in bewilderment.

Ami, judging that it would be better to defuse this situation, said, "Usagi-chan, want to talk about it?"

The blonde gave a venomous glare towards the stairs Chibi-Usa had darted down and, uttering something acidic, stomped into her room.

Ami followed, uncertain if she really wanted to be in such close proximity to a walking time bomb. When she did work up the nerve to come into Usagi's room, she found her friend scraping what looked like green slime off of her bed and into a trashcan.

"What is that?"

"I don't know... just rather slimy stuff... The fungus probably leaked it out!" the blonde huffed. After a moment, Usagi calmed down. "Gomen, Ami-chan... It's just been rough. I don't get what's happening. I've never seen her this bad before. I mean I know she can be good but..." Usagi threw her hands up in an expression of non-comprehension.

Taking out her minicomputer, Ami viewed the results of the scan she'd just taken of Chibi-Usa. "The amount of Dark Energy remaining is less than my previous scan. These results indicate that the Dark Energy IS leaving Chibi-Usa's body." After tapping a few more keys, "I don't think it's having any affect on her... However, I want you to keep a close watch on her for a few days more."

"Iie," Usagi stated bluntly.

"Usagi-chan, it'll just be a few more days, that's all."

"Iie!"

"Usagi-chan... would you want anything to really happen to that little girl?"

'Would I?' Usagi asked herself, 'She's a pain! But...' Heaving a sigh, she relented, "All right, Ami-chan... only a couple more days?" 'I hope I can stand it.'

"Hai," Ami chirped. 'If I'm correct...'

# # # # #

Usagi plodded home the next day. She managed to stay awake for the entire class for once. She surprisingly had no detention and she even arrived at the Sailor Senshi meeting on time too. 'I'm not sure who it surprised more, me or Rei.' Usagi smiled at that thought. 'I still don't get it... Maybe I'm just having a lucky day.'

Walking to her home, she slipped off her shoes and called out a greeting to her mother. What she got in response was a muffled crash. Cocking her head, Usagi listened again. "That's coming from my room!" she screeched as she heard another crash and a curse.

Bolting up the stairs, the complaining grew louder with the occasional thud. "Where is that baka hiding it?" Usagi threw open the door of her bedroom. What greeted the teen's eyes looked like a demolition zone. The dresser was toppled over and the contents of the drawers were spread throughout the room. The bed was in shambles with the sheets and blankets tossed in helter-skelter fashion. Fluff floated down throughout the room from one of the torn pillows. At that moment, her closet was being systematically ripped apart with her clothes being tossed everywhere. "Kami-sama, it's got to be here somewhere."

Usagi let out a bellow of gigantic proportions and launched herself towards the closet. Seeing the perpetrator, she grabbed Chibi-Usa up and by sheer force of will stopped herself from flinging the evil imp across the room. She neatly dropped the still enraged child on the bed and glared at her. "What are you doing in here?"

"Give me the Ginzuishou!" Chibi-Usa demanded angrily. 'How can she hide it and I still can't find it?'

"You want it?" Usagi had finally had enough. 'I can't take this anymore.'

"HAI!" Chibi-Usa screeched.

"Here then." The distraught teen grabbed her brooch and was ready to fling it at her tormentor when an idea struck her. She smiled evilly at the child who was momentarily dumbstruck by Usagi's sudden compliance with her demand. "MOON HEALING ESCALATION!" Usagi shouted. The Ginzuishou flared into life. 'Ginzuishou, please make Chibi-Usa a nice little girl!' Usagi thought as she poured all of her emotional power into the wish.

Chibi-Usa seeing the Ginzuishou, the target of her long search, leapt and made contact with the brooch just as Usagi completed her command to the Ginzuishou. And both were enveloped in a sphere of blinding white light!

# # # # #

Chapter 3 "The Good, The Bad, and The Outrageous"

After the light dissipated, the child let go of the Ginzuishou and dropped to the floor with a mild thud. She looked up at Usagi in confusion for a moment. 'What happened?' She slowly looked around the demolished room. 'What have I done?' Chibi-Usa stood there in shocked realization. Another moment passed before she found her voice.

Standing up and giving a deep bow, Chibi-Usa stated humbly, "Usagi-san, I am very sorry for the mess I made. Gomen nasai."

Usagi was taken aback and not really believing the apology snarled out, "Do you think simply saying 'you're sorry' is going to get you out of trouble?"

Usagi's rebuke stung her deeply. Chibi-Usa remained silent for a moment before she moved over and started to pick up some strewn clothing. 'What exactly is the little spore up to? She must be trying to trick me,' Usagi thought as she watched the little girl.

Chibi-Usa kept turned away from her cousin not wishing to show Usagi her shame. However, a sound did make its way to Usagi's ears. She couldn't discern it at first then Usagi blinked. 'She's crying?' Usagi thought in disbelief but it was true.

As the little girl moved around the room gathering up clothes, she took on more of a dejected look, her crying and sadness quite apparent. Finally, Usagi got a good look at child's face. Her eyes were puffed up and tears were streaming down her reddened cheeks. She was fighting not to cry out loud. It was obvious to Usagi this was no deception.

'Did I hurt her?' Usagi wondered now feeling just a little guilty at causing such anguish to the little girl. Moving over to her, she asked, "Are you okay, Chibi-Usa-chan? Are you hurt?"

The seven year old stopped her work and looked up into Usagi's eyes, her eyes full of sadness. "Usagi-san... I'm fine... I-I'll clean up..." With that, Chibi-Usa returned to her task.

'IT WORKED!' Usagi beamed but she quickly lost her joy. The more she watched Chibi-Usa, the more she felt guilty about yelling at her. 'Why did I have to yell at her like that? She's just a little kid.' Catching the pile of clothing that had started to fall out of the girl's arms, Usagi offered in a soft voice, "I'll help you, okay Chibi-Usa-chan?"

Chibi-Usa shook her head. "I made the mess... I-I have to clean it up," she sniffled out. 'Why did I mess up Usagi's room? She trusted me. How could I do what I did to her? She really does care about me...' This thought brought another lump to Chibi-Usa's throat and she let out another sob. 'I really let her down. How can Usagi ever like me again?'

Seeing the renewal of tears, Usagi dropped the clothing she had begun to pick up and kneeled down to regard her cousin. "Hey Chibi-Usa-chan, what's the matter?" Usagi asked concerned. "I'm sorry I yelled at you..." Usagi trailed off as the child shook her head once again.

'I deserved to be yelled at! Why did I try to hurt Usagi?' "It's my fault... I was bad..." The sheer sorrow contained in that statement pulled at Usagi's heart.

Reaching out, she pulled Chibi-Usa into a hug saying, "Iie, you weren't."

Chibi-Usa regarded Usagi in bewilderment. "Hai, I was... I hit you with water-balloons... I could've h-hurt you... and... and... I-I... got you in trouble with Ikuko-mama and... and..." Chibi-Usa let out a gut-wrenching sob before saying, "I wrecked your room!"

The teen just continued to hug Chibi-Usa trying to calm her down. 'I never wanted to hurt you, Chibi-Usa.' Rubbing the little girl's back, Usagi spoke softly and consolingly repeating that she wasn't angry with Chibi-Usa for what she did. Eventually it seemed to work; Chibi-Usa calmed down and started to return Usagi's hug tentatively at first and then wholeheartedly.

After a minute or so, Usagi declared, "We'll clean the room up together... Okay?"

"Hai... Onee-san."

A broad smile passed across Usagi's face. It was certainly contagious as a smile found its way onto Chibi-Usa's face as well. 'I've got the most wonderful 'big sister' in all the world!'

# # # # #

Had anyone in the Tsukino household come up the stairs at that moment, he would have observed a glowing ball of energy hovering outside of Usagi's bedroom door. If that same person had stayed to watch, he would have seen the ball slowly coalesce into a humanoid shape and then solidify into the form of Chibi-Usa fully clothed in her elementary school uniform.

Shaking her head slightly, Chibi-Usa looked around and noticed she was standing on the outside of Usagi's door. 'How did I get out here so fast? I'm quicker than I thought. Well that baka didn't spank me... better not hang around here though before she tries to.' With that, Chibi-Usa started towards her room and then noticed that she was still wearing her uniform. 'Yuck! Gotta lose this crap and go find something more befitting me!' With that, she slowly went downstairs.

When Ikuko was out of the kitchen, the girl stealthily went out the door and slipped into the street. 'Now where to first?' After some thought, Chibi-Usa started to head in the direction of the nearest mall.

As the minutes passed, she realized that if she walked, she'd arrive after the mall closed. Therefore, Chibi-Usa decided to look for other transportation. A solution soon made itself apparent. A young girl about her age was happily riding her bicycle along the sidewalk. 'That will do just fine,' Chibi-Usa thought evilly.

"Konnichiwa!" Chibi-Usa called as the girl rode past her.

The little girl's head whirled around toward the unexpected sound. All she saw was another girl's incoming fist slamming into her face. She dropped heavily to the ground, the surprise and pain paralyzing her. Chibi-Usa looked at the girl now at her feet and kicked her in the abdomen twice for good measure. Satisfied that the scared girl wouldn't try to stop her, Chibi-Usa hopped onto the girl's bike and sped off leaving the now crying and injured girl helpless on the sidewalk.

"Arigato!" Chibi-Usa yelled over her shoulder as she continued to her destination.

# # # # #

Usagi sat down noting with some awe that her room was cleaner than when she had left that morning. Chibi-Usa came over and in a tentative voice said, "Onee-san, are you sure you're not mad at me?"

Usagi regarded the girl curiously, and then a notion struck her. She picked up Chibi-Usa.

'She's mad at me... She's gonna spank me,' Chibi-Usa bleakly thought.

To her surprise, Usagi settled Chibi-Usa on her lap and while giving a hug of reassurance, explained, "Iie, Imouto, I'm not mad at you. There is something I'd like to know. Would you tell me why you're after the Ginzuishou?"

'I can't tell her everything. Puu said I shouldn't,' Chibi-Usa debated to herself, 'But she's my onee-san, I want to tell her something...' After a few seconds, Chibi-Usa answered, "My mommy's in trouble in the future. I need the Ginzuishou to save Mommy. It's the only way to save her. Mommy had the Ginzuishou but..." Chibi-Usa lowered her head and sniffled.

"But what?" Usagi prodded breathlessly. 'She's saying more than she has ever said before. I'll have to tell the other girls about this.'

"It... it... disappeared," Chibi-Usa continued almost in a hushed voice followed this time by a sob. "I don't know what happened to it. I should've told you before, Onee-san. Gomen... Please, will you help me save my mommy?"

Hugging Chibi-Usa, Usagi said, "Imouto... I promise when Rubeus and the Four Sisters are dealt with, I'll give you the Ginzuishou. I'll even get Sailor Moon to help too."

"Honto?" 'Sailor Moon? I love you, Onee-san.'

"Hai!"

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa had made it to the mall, carelessly flinging the bike to one side. 'I'll have to get a better bike next time.'

She visited two clothing stores in the mall. In both cases, she was promptly escorted out because she was too young. 'How dare they say I need someone older with me? They don't know who they're dealing with.'

She decided to try a different strategy for the third store. She snuck in. She made sure to avoid contact with anyone in the store or look like she was the child of one of the other customers. The tactic worked.

A while later, the little girl was standing in a fitting room observing herself in the mirror. She was trying on some rather slinky one-piece outfits that she had gotten from the store's petite woman department. Most of them, however, were still far too large for her seven year old frame. But this one seemed to fit her 'relatively' well. It was a size zero satin red dress with a slit running up either side from the bottom to around the waistline. It was rather seductive and suggestive to say the least. 'Now this dress is more suitable to a woman of my beauty and intelligence.'

Taking it off and setting it aside, she tried on a few more outfits. After several more minutes, she made her decision. She crept out of the fitting room with three outfits. They were all too big for her but not ridiculously so. Chibi-Usa had a solution for this eventuality: she could use Luna-P to make them fit better.

The thought of Luna-P made Chibi-Usa stop and frown. 'Where's Luna-P? Why ain't it here with me? It should have followed me.'

"Hey you!" Spinning around, she saw a salesclerk bearing down on her. "Where are you going with those, little girl?"

With a yelp, she bolted out of the store and quickly disappeared into the crowd. The salesclerk gave up and returned to the store. After pushing her way through the crowd, Chibi-Usa's stomach reminded her that it was near suppertime. 'I'm hungry but I don't got any money. I know...' Seeing a woman's purse, she casually walked up, grabbed it, and took off before any prying eyes could notice her.

Darting into the women's restroom, Chibi-Usa entered a stall and then started to dig through the purse. When her greedy little hands came up from the purse, she was holding a large wad of cash. "Time to go shopping!" she crowed gleefully.

# # # # #

Knocking on Usagi's door, Ikuko said, "Usagi-chan? Chibi-Usa-chan?"

Chibi-Usa opened the door and replied, "Hai Ikuko-mama." She was almost finished cleaning up the room.

The woman was speechless. Usagi's room was actually... clean? 'Even at her best, Usagi never kept it like this!' Regaining her voice, Ikuko suggested, "Come wash up for supper, Chibi-Usa-chan."

"Hai! Ikuko-mama?"

"Yes?"

"Ikuko-mama... There is something I have to tell you." The mother of two looked at her expectantly. Chibi-Usa took a breath and continued, "I'm sorry for making a mess in the kitchen yesterday. I don't know why I did it but it was my fault...not Usagi-chan's fault. Please don't be mad at her." She suppressed a sob. "I'm sorry Onee-san got into trouble for something I did. Gomen nasai." 'I hope she doesn't spank me even though I deserve it.'

Ikuko was again speechless. After several seconds, she lectured, "Chibi-Usa-chan, it was very wrong of you to mess up my kitchen. It was even worse that you let Usagi be blamed for doing it." Chibi-Usa bowed her head in shame. "It took a lot of courage for you to come to me and admit you were wrong. I won't punish you but you have to promise never to do it again AND apologize to Usagi for getting her in trouble."

"Hai! I did apologize to Onee-san and she forgave me. It was very nice of her. I promise to never be bad again," the child stated proudly.

'Onee-san?' "I'm very proud of you. You are certainly acting mature for your age." Chibi-Usa just smiled sweetly. "Chibi-Usa-chan, now go wash up for supper."

"Hai!"

# # # # #

Later that evening, Ikuko went upstairs and knocked on Usagi's door. It was promptly opened by Chibi-Usa already in her bunny pajamas. "Time for bed, Chibi-Usa-chan."

Chibi-Usa looked past Ikuko at her room and then at Usagi for a moment before asking, "Onee-san, can I sleep in here?" 'I hope she says hai. I don't wanna be by myself.'

Usagi who was still euphoric from having actually gotten through the day civilly with Chibi-Usa agreed, "Hai." 'She's been so nice to me. Only problem was she insisted I do my homework with her!'

Turning back, Chibi-Usa asked, "Ikuko-mama, can I sleep in here with Usagi-oneechan?"

"Seeing that Usagi said it was all right... I suppose, but you have to go right to bed."

"Arigato, Usagi-chan, Ikuko-mama."

Chibi-Usa didn't waste any time. She scampered over to Usagi's bed and climbed in under the covers. Ikuko smiled, gave Chibi-Usa a hug goodnight, and left the room. Chibi-Usa looked over at her cousin who was reading a manga and asked, "Onee-san, would you read me a story?" obviously looking forward to it with some delight.

Usagi frowned slightly. 'It was just getting good!' "Okay, Imouto, what story should I read?"

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa snuggled close to her cousin and whispered, "Thank you, Onee-san. I was scared those bad people would come and get me. I feel safe here with you." The child felt just like she did when she was with her mother. She felt warm, safe, secure, and most of all, loved.

"Don't worry, you ARE safe with me, Imouto," Usagi declared in another whisper before both drifted off to sleep.

# # # # #

Well past midnight, Chibi-Usa quietly slipped into the Tsukino home. This was no easy task because she was loaded down with her 'purchases'. She gave a look of disdain at Usagi's bedroom door as she passed it. 'Why would I ever want to sleep in that baka's bed?' Going into her own room, she looked around for Luna-P and noticed it wasn't there.

Changing into her pajamas, Chibi-Usa crept over to her cousin's door and after quietly opening it, called out softly, "Luna-P?"

Luna-P floated up from the bed and floated over to its mistress. Chibi-Usa grabbed it, quietly closed the door, and went back to her room. "Luna-P," Chibi-Usa commanded quietly, "I want you to make all these clothes fit me right." She gave a grin of satisfaction as Luna-P set to work modifying the clothes. 'I'll be glad when Luna-P finishes so I can get out of these disgusting pajamas.'

Several hours later, receiving a call of nature, Chibi-Usa, now dressed in a sexy nightgown, slipped out of her room. She was about to enter the bathroom when she heard Shingo mutter, "Chibi-Usa? I thought you were sleeping with Usagi." Then getting a better look at her nightgown. "And when did Mom buy you that?"

Whirling around, she hissed out, "What I wear is none of your business, baka! 'Sides, why would I be sleeping with that BAKA ODANGO ATAMA! What do you think I am?"

Shingo blinked then looked nervously around to see if his parents were coming to investigate. "I know what I heard. You went to sleep in Usagi's room. Ne, did she kick you out for wetting the bed again?"

Chibi-Usa snarled and went into the bathroom. She'd get her revenge on Shingo for his insolent remark. 'How dare that baka insult me but he won't ever again.' she smiled suddenly. She knew exactly what she was going to do!

# # # # #

Chapter 4 "The Coming Darkness"

Dawn arrived in the City of Tokyo. The sunshine first peeked through the bunny head curtains over the windowsill and then slowly filled Usagi's bedroom. It crept quietly over the three sleeping figures in the bed.

Luna as usual was the first to awake; she looked around the room and noticed that Chibi-Usa had a rather large grin on her face. 'I've never before seen the child so content. She's been such a terror lately. It's a pity she has to wake up and spoil it for me.'

After a few minutes, Chibi-Usa woke up, slowly at first. She blinked to try and get the sleep out of her eyes. She glanced over to Usagi sleeping peacefully beside her. 'I'm so lucky to have Onee-san here with me.' Chibi-Usa was nice and warm. She hadn't felt this secure since she'd left Crystal Tokyo. 'Mommy will like Usagi, I know it. I hope it won't be long before she helps me save her.' She glanced at the clock and saw that it was still quite early.

'Everybody's still asleep... But I'm wide-awake,' she thought and watched the rising and lowering of Usagi's chest as the older girl slept soundly. She felt content just quietly watching the teen for a while. Finally, she decided she should get out of bed. 'I don't want to wake anybody up especially Usagi,' Chibi-Usa worried and with that, started slowly to pull herself out of the bed. Luna watched in disbelief. She'd never seen Chibi-Usa so considerate of Usagi before.

Usagi continuing her slumber undisturbed was foremost in Chibi-Usa's thoughts so as quietly as she could, the child left the room and went into the bathroom. After a few minutes, Chibi-Usa came back out and saw a rather groggy-looking Ikuko just stumbling from her room.

The little girl took on a pensive look walking towards her aunt slowly. She whispered, "Ikuko-mama? Did I wake you up? Gomen."

Ikuko looked bleary-eyed as Chibi-Usa for several seconds before shaking her head. "Chibi-Usa-chan, what are you doing up this early?"

Chibi-Usa considered this. "I just woke up," she answered honestly. "I promise I'll be quiet." 'I hope she ain't mad at me.'

Ikuko yawned and patted Chibi-Usa on top of her head. This brought a smile to the child's face. She hugged her aunt's leg in return and then quietly skipped back into Usagi's room to get dressed. 'I remember Usagi being like that when she was little,' Ikuko reminisced, 'Pity they have to grow up. Now I have to go through it again.'

Unheard by Chibi-Usa, her aunt muttered grumpily about the loss of her private time to wake up in the morning before entering the bathroom.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was sitting quietly on the floor of Usagi's room reading a children's book trying hard not to giggle too loudly when Usagi's alarm clock went off. Chibi-Usa gave a yelp of surprise and another yelp when a well-placed pillow arced gracefully through the air and neatly silenced the alarm. 'Sugoi! Onee-san will get up now. Maybe she'll read to me before we go to school.'

Chibi-Usa gathered up her book and started for the door. When she turned back, however, she saw that the teen was not getting up. A small frown creased her forehead; walking over, she gently tapped her cousin.

"Onee-san?" The lump hiding under the covers mumbled something incoherent. Chibi-Usa was starting to worry. "Onee-san, are you okay?"

The grumpy face of Usagi made an appearance and glared at her before disappearing again under a pillow. 'She'll be late for school...' Chibi-Usa reasoned and gave Usagi a firmer push while saying, "Please Onee-san, you'll be late for school! It's time to get up!" 'Maybe she's sick.'

The feral growl that was emanated from the covers made the little girl take a step back. It sounded more like an animal than a fourteen year old girl. 'If she isn't sick, then she has to go to school and if she doesn't get up now, then she can't walk me to school...' Resolved that Usagi would walk her to school, Chibi-Usa took another step forward and shoved harder saying in a louder voice, "Usagi-san, it's time to wake up... Please!"

Luna had been watching with this with some reservation. 'What's wrong with her? Does she have a death wish?' Luna wondered, and then backed up several feet as the covers suddenly heaved and a rather irate Usagi glared down at Chibi-Usa.

"Listen here, spore!" Usagi ranted, "I'll get up when I'm good and ready!"

Chibi-Usa's reaction was not what the feline had expected it would be. The child sniffled at first and turned away. 'What have I done? I thought Usagi liked me...' Tears were forming in her eyes. This only seemed to irritate Usagi even more she moved to grab Chibi-Usa but what she said stopped Usagi dead in her tracks, "You don't really like me, ne?"

'Nani?' Usagi paused, a look of confusion coming across her face. "Chibi-Usa-chan, of course I like you..." Usagi retorted, her mental capacity was not at its best this early in the morning so she was slow realizing what had just happened. 'Wait... That's right... I healed her... She's a nice little girl now.'

There was another silence before Chibi-Usa asked, "Then why'd you call me 'spore'?" Chibi-Usa asked while sniffling again. 'Why did I make her so mad?'

Turning Chibi-Usa to face her, Usagi regarded the little girl and apologized, "I'm sorry for calling you a spore... Gomen. I didn't mean to. Now why were you trying to wake me up... Imouto?" Usagi managed a smile.

'Maybe she was just thinking about the bad stuff I did before. That's it. Usagi DOES like me! I know it.' Chibi-Usa considered Usagi's apology for a little bit before replying, "Onee-san... I wanted you to walk me to school..." She gave Usagi a quick hug.

She looked at the clock and then back to Chibi-Usa. 'Look at those eyes. How can I say no?' Suppressing a grimace, she agreed, "Okay... But we need to get ready." 'Kami-sama, my heart isn't even started this early.'

Chibi-Usa nodded and proceeded to get dressed but kept a watchful eye on Usagi who was constantly mumbling under her breath.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa leisurely stretched out and looked at the clock. 'Hmm... Ten o'clock. Good... I'll do a little shopping and then setup my trap for that baka Shingo. And then, I have something 'extra special' planned for Usagi.' She continued to think about Usagi. 'Hmm... Usagi... That's not right for that baka. She doesn't deserve it.' Chibi-Usa made a face as she slipped out of bed. 'Usagi's my name...' Then a slow smile spread across her face. "Chibi-Usa? I'll call that BAKA ODANGO ATAMA 'CHIBI-USA'!"

She reached for her school uniform and grimaced. 'I won't be going to school today.' Tossing it aside into a corner, Chibi-Usa put on the red dress she had stolen the day before.

After taking care of necessities, Chibi-Usa slipped quietly down the stairs while constantly keeping a lookout for Ikuko. Seeing the bothersome grownup absent, the child quietly slipped out of the door. 'I'm outta here... I'll be eating out for breakfast...'

Making sure Luna-P was with her, Chibi-Usa darted off down the street. However, not without notice. The risqué dress caused quite a stir as older people stared at the youngster who was making like a grownup. 'The peasants know a real woman when they see one.'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa's shopping trip was cut short sometime around two o'clock that afternoon by a truant officer who came stocking towards her.

"Why aren't you in school, little girl? Where are your parents?" the officer demanded.

Ignoring him, Chibi-Usa started to brush by him but he reached out and snagged her arm. "Let go of me, you oversized gorilla! I am a princess. Commoners like you may not touch royalty!"

The man didn't let go but responded sarcastically, "Oh? Princess, ne? Well, 'Your Highness', let's just see what your parents say about it... Now where are they?"

Chibi-Usa frowned severely, "Let go of me, you great blundering ass! Luna-P!"

With the cry of outrage, Luna-P bolted forward and smacked the officer right in his face. He began to fall backwards from the shock of the impact. 'How dare he touch royalty. He should be honored I even addressed him.' Chibi-Usa wasn't finished. For good measure and for a bit of revenge, Chibi-Usa took her umbrella (which she had "acquired" to go with her outfit) and drove it into the truant officer's groin. He did the expected thing and crumpled to the ground without a sound obviously in considerable pain.

The crowd who had observed this child's shocking behavior became rather vocal about it. Two burly women started towards Chibi-Usa but with Luna-P's help, she managed to avoid them. 'These people should learn how to properly treat royalty.' Noting the time, she took off for the Tsukino home to setup her trap for Shingo.

# # # # #

Tsukino Usagi was happy, tired, but happy. She turned the final corner and found Chibi-Usa waiting for her outside Juuban Elementary School entrance. As soon as Chibi-Usa saw her, she yelled happily, "Onee-san!" and dashed forward. When she got to Usagi, she hugged her legs nearly tripping the blonde in the process.

Chibi-Usa was acting the way she had always dreamed. "I'm glad to see you too, Imouto," Usagi declared elated, "I'm going to take you home and then I'm going over to Rei's."

"Onee-san, can I come too?" Chibi-Usa asked looking hopeful. 'I don't wanna be alone.'

"Gomen, Chibi-Usa-chan, but I think it would be better if I went by myself."

"I'll be good! I promise!" the child pleaded determinedly. 'I have to prove to her that I can be good!'

'Well... This concern's her...' Usagi thought, 'Let's see how well she'll listen to me.' "I said iie, Chibi-Usa-chan." Seeing the dejected look, Usagi added, "But if you're good today, I'll take you to the park tomorrow, okay?"

"Hai! I'll be extra good." Taking Usagi's hand, they started their walk home.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa sat on Shingo's bed waiting for him to come in. She looked at the bucket propped precariously above the door. 'That was a bitch to get up there...' Chibi-Usa mused, 'He should be honored that I put in so much effort into this... especially stopping to get that cheap perfume.' She chuckled with the thought.

As if that thought was a cue, Shingo walked into his room. The door opened, the bucket fell and dumped its contents all over the unsuspecting preteen. Chibi-Usa chuckled again and took out the new camera she'd also gotten today. She snapped a picture of this spectacle.

"Kami-sama! What the HELL's going on in here?" Shingo demanded trying to get the large bucket off his head, "And what is that smell?"

This just caused Chibi-Usa to laugh harder. When Shingo lifted the bucket off his head, the look he sent the little girl would have killed an elephant. At that instant, Chibi-Usa snapped another picture of the outraged preteen. It became too hilarious so Chibi-Usa rolled around on the floor. The initial shock wore off and Shingo started to head toward Chibi-Usa. Seeing him, she took off running.

"Get back here, spore!"

"Hey, do it again. I need some more pictures!" Chibi-Usa shot back as she scampered through the kitchen and ran out the door.

He tore down the steps and neatly slid across the kitchen floor as soon as his wet slippers made contact with the freshly waxed floor. Giving a yelp, Shingo tried to remain upright but only managed to fall heavily to the floor.

"What's going on?" Ikuko demanded as she came down the stairs and saw Shingo scrambling to get up while sputtering curses.

"She... she..." Shingo managed to haul himself up and started towards the door.

"'She' who? Usagi?" Ikuko questioned. 'I've never seen him act like this before...'

"Iie, that SPORE, Chibi-Usa!"

Chibi-Usa was long gone. She had sped out of the kitchen and ducked around the side of the house figuring that any pursuer would go out into the street to look. 'That was pretty good... Should have used that on 'Chibi-Usa',' Chibi-Usa thought. Slipping over the wall into the neighbor's yard, she considered her next move. It had to be big... 'Well maybe after supper.'

Unseen by the fleeing girl, Usagi came walking into the yard with another Chibi-Usa, who was chattering about her pleasant school day. They entered into the house to a rather curious scene.

"There you are!" Shingo yelled and lunged to grapple Chibi-Usa. 'How'd she change clothes so fast?'

The little girl in fright ducked behind her cousin and wrinkled her nose. 'He smells like... stinky perfume.' She made a face at the horrible smell.

Usagi was rather blunt, "Shingo, you stink! Get away from us!" Taking this opportunity, his sister added, "On the other hand, considering what you usually smell like, it's an improvement." Usagi began to laugh until her mother's harsh gaze caused her to think better of it.

"That wasn't very nice, Onee-san," came the small voice of Chibi-Usa poking her head out from behind Usagi.

"She's the one that did this to me!" Shingo howled and tried to go after Chibi-Usa. Usagi was in his way though so he only managed to collide with his sister.

"Chibi-Usa, is this true?" Ikuko asked sternly crossing her arms.

"Iie!" Chibi-Usa squawked horrified, "I'd never do anything to Shingo-kun like that..." 'I'd use better smelling stuff,' Chibi-Usa blinked. 'Where did that come from? No wonder Usagi thinks I'm still bad. I should be ashamed of myself.'

"Yeah, I walked her home from school," Usagi explained, "Honest Mom, I don't think she'd do something like this."

Ikuko considered Usagi's words for a few moments before looking directly at the little girl. "Chibi-Usa, I'm only going to ask you once more... Did you do this?"

"Iie, Ikuko-mama."

"All right, I believe you since you were honest with me yesterday." Turning to Shingo, Ikuko stated, "You, young man, will be doing a large amount of cleaning... and explaining."

# # # # #

"Who on earth bought you that?" Mamoru demanded. He was staring at Chibi-Usa in a dress not very appropriate for a child of her age. In fact, it wouldn't be appropriate for even someone Usagi's age.

"Like it, Mamo-chan?" Chibi-Usa asked while batting her eyelashes, "I picked it out especially for you."

"Chibi-Usa..."

"My name's USAGI!" Chibi-Usa yelled, "That BAKA ODANGO ATAMA is Chibi-Usa!" Recovering herself, Chibi-Usa continued, "Would you take me out to supper?"

Mamoru opened his mouth and closed it again. "Only if you put on something more befitting your age." 'Usagi must've bought that for her and sent her here.' The glare he got back was loaded with venom.

"As a princess, I am entitled to wear whatever I want! Now Mamo-chan, I'm hungry... You wouldn't wanna disappoint me, ne?"

'Dinner first, then I get to the bottom of this... When I get a hold of Usagi!' Picking up his keys, he stalked out of his apartment with the little girl in tow.

# # # # #

Usagi smugly sat down at her place in Rei's room. The others were sending covert looks of disbelief. Rei was openly trying to deny the obvious - Usagi was on time for a Sailor Senshi meeting.

"I have something to tell you guys!" Usagi crowed gleefully.

"Usagi, I am not interested in your love life!" Rei yelled and then muttered, "What little one you have..." Minako snickered.

Usagi ignored the barb. She was riding high on being "Onee-san" and had valuable information to share. Nothing was going to spoil this moment for her. Giving one huge smug look that practically shouted, "I know something you don't and I ain't telling!" Usagi launched into telling her friends what Chibi-Usa had told her earlier.

They were all speechless; Rei was flabbergasted. Usagi simply sat smugly holding the other secret to herself. 'I'm her onee-san! Chibi-Usa is behaving really well and I'm the one that healed her!'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa slipped out of Usagi's room snickering to herself. With a motion, she changed Luna-P back from the power screwdriver to its regular form. She had just removed every screw in Usagi's room. She would have stayed longer but the night was young, and so was she. 'I got places to go and things to do.'

Heading for the steps, she noted the bothersome grownups were downstairs so she shinned out her window using Luna-P to guide her descent and slipped away into the night. Tokyo was in for a night.

Usagi trudged up the steps, Chibi-Usa skipping happily behind her. Chibi-Usa was off to bed and Usagi was going to finish up her homework. The child had insisted on doing homework rather than going to the arcade and that annoyed Usagi considerably. 'But hey! She's my imouto and very nice and this is a minor inconvenience.'

The first indication that something was wrong was when Usagi went to open the door and it fell inwards. Usagi blinked for a minute and then stepped inside turning on the light. What she saw was horrific, at least to her. Every piece of furniture was dismantled and spread around the room. A large pile of what appeared to be screws was sitting in the middle of the floor.

Her first instinct was to blame it on Chibi-Usa. Whirling around, she glared at the little girl who was looking rather confused. 'Well...' Usagi considered it carefully. She had to ask though just to make sure. "Imouto?"

Chibi-Usa raised her head and regarded Usagi with a bit of worry. 'She thinks I did it,' she realized. "Hai?" came the small reply.

"Imouto... did you... did you do this?" Usagi tried to put it as gently as possible.

Chibi-Usa at first felt hurt by the question and then thought about what happened that afternoon. 'Shingo must be trying to get me into trouble. That's not very nice of him.' "Iie! I didn't do this, Onee-san, honest." 'She had to ask me. I did those bad things before. Usagi STILL likes me.'

Reassured, the pigtailed teen excused herself and stalked across to her brother's room. Pounding on the door, she yelled, "Shingo!"

He put his head out and glared at his older sister, she glared back while saying, "Shingo, just because you were embarrassed to admit that maybe you were planning that joke and it backfired, doesn't mean you should try and get MY IMOUTO into trouble with HER ONEE-SAN!"

'Imouto? Her onee-san?' Shingo snickered. Just the thought of what Usagi was saying sounded odd. Turning around, he muttered, "Yeah whatever!" and closed the door.

That settled it for Usagi. Obviously, her brother was the culprit. Her imouto was as innocent as she appeared. Fuming, Usagi headed downstairs with a rather confused Chibi-Usa following along with one thought running through her mind, 'Onee-san believes me!'

# # # # #

"I'm glad to see you dressed according to your age, Chibi-Usa," Mamoru commented to Chibi-Usa who was wearing a blue sailor fuku. Usagi was dropping her off at the door after their enjoyable afternoon at the park. Chibi-Usa looked confusedly at Mamoru who continued speaking to Usagi, "Usagi-san, I want to talk to you about that dress you bought her."

"Nani?" Usagi questioned. 'What dress?'

"Don't play stupid with me. The red dress you bought Chibi-Usa... er Usagi and sent her over here in last night."

Usagi gave Mamoru a pitying look before saying, "Poor boy... You must be working too hard."

"Onee-san didn't buy me a dress..." Chibi-Usa put in, "Were you going to surprise me, Onee-san?"

"Onee-san? What happened to 'Baka Odango Atama'?"

Usagi ignored the comment. Obviously, Mamoru was distraught because he broke up with her. Instead, she turned to Chibi-Usa, "Imouto... Mamoru-kun will drop you home later, okay?"

"Hai."

With that, Usagi bent down, hugged her, and kissed Chibi-Usa's forehead. "Be good."

"Hai, Onee-san," Chibi-Usa chirped while skipping past the rather confused Mamoru. 'I'll miss you.'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was in a foul mood. Her aunt had caught her trying to sneak out and had ordered her up to her room immediately to put on more proper clothing. The only thing she could stomach, barely, was a blue sailor fuku. 'I can't believe I ever wore any of this kawaii crap. This stuff is for babies.' Putting it on, she stomped down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"There that's much better," her aunt commented.

"Shove it!" Chibi-Usa retorted. 'Why should I take her orders?'

"Pardon me, young lady?" Ikuko said incredulously. 'I haven't been talked to like that since Usagi tried it.'

"You'll call me 'Your Highness'. I'm a princess. I should be able to dress any way I like."

"Not while living under my roof you don't," Ikuko replied advancing towards the child. "What's gotten into you?" 'She certainly isn't acting like she did before. Why is she so angry?' She hadn't seen Chibi-Usa come in, but Usagi wasn't with her so she figured Usagi maybe wanted some time alone. She must have dropped her off at home.

Keeping a comfortable distance between herself and her aunt, Chibi-Usa scoffed, "A commoner like you wouldn't dare lay a hand on me!"

The woman was still controlling her temper with difficulty but continued after the child. What Chibi-Usa did next startled her. With blinding speed, Chibi-Usa grabbed two eggs sitting on the counter and flung them. They hit their mark and splattered Ikuko. 'Beautiful,' Chibi-Usa thought.

Usagi had slipped down to the arcade, but now was entering the front yard. 'Imouto wouldn't have liked me going to the arcade without doing my homework first. Lucky for me she won't find out.' As she approached the house, she could hear her mother's voice furiously demanding something. 'What's going on in there?' Usagi walked into the house.

What she walked into was a war zone. Her mother was covered with food and was chasing a rather foul-mouthed Chibi-Usa. "Nani?" Usagi asked was promptly pelted with two eggs. "Imouto!" she barked.

"I ain't your damn sister, 'Chibi-Usa''!" Chibi-Usa yelled and launched another egg at the teen who had the good sense to duck.

'Chibi-Usa? What's wrong with her?'

With a snarl, Ikuko lunged for Chibi-Usa but misjudged the distance and skidded across the floor. Chibi-Usa made a break for the door but was brought up short by Usagi who caught her arm. "And just where do you think you're going?"

Growling furiously, Chibi-Usa lashed out and kicked Usagi. However, it was in vain because her aunt had recovered and taken over for Usagi. She now had the child by the scruff of her uniform. "Now, what is going on with you?" Ikuko demanded. 'Maybe someone gave her drugs or something.'

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too!" a confused Usagi seconded. 'Did something go wrong with the healing?'

"Bite me, 'Chibi-Usa'!" Chibi-Usa hissed.

"Young lady!" Ikuko's voice was stern, "You will show the proper respect."

'Yeah right.' Chibi-Usa thought this over for a moment before bowing her head, 'Have to make this look good for the old baka...' Chibi-Usa decided. She was intelligent enough to know that she first had to get her aunt to let her go before making a break for it. "Hai, Ikuko-mama," Chibi-Usa said in her best terrified voice. 'I can't believe I used to talk like that.'

Ikuko gave a stern look at Chibi-Usa and then let go of the child. 'The baka fell for it!' As soon as she had moved a step away, Chibi-Usa called out, "Luna-P, smoke cloud!" In an instant, a smoke cloud blinded both Ikuko and Usagi while Chibi-Usa slipped out the door. Running as fast as she could, she took her previous night's escape route over the neighbor's fence and out of sight.

Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa who had just spent and enjoyable afternoon with Mamoru had been dropped off. 'That was fun but I want my onee-san.' She was skipping toward the house when a rather irate Ikuko stormed out of the house with and none-too-pleased Usagi trailing close behind. 'Why are their clothes so dirty?'

"Ikuko-mama? Onee-san?" Chibi-Usa questioned softly. 'They look really mad!' She took a step back as both sets of stern gazes locked onto her. 'Did Shingo do something and blame it on me?'

"Young lady," Ikuko began barely controlling her anger, "Get into this house and upstairs THIS INSTANT!" She emphasized her point by jabbing her finger toward the door.

# # # # #

Chapter 5 "Mirror"

Chibi-Usa stood there in shock for a few seconds. 'What did I do? What do they think I did?' She tried to reason out what nasty trick Shingo pulled and blamed on her. Then looking back at Usagi and her aunt, she felt her stomach start to churn. 'They've never been this mad.' Catching a movement, she saw her aunt start towards her. 'I've got to go see what happened. Gomen, Ikuko-mama.' Ducking her head, Chibi-Usa ran by her aunt and into the house.

The little girl gasped as she came into the kitchen. 'So, that's what he did! Ikuko-mama thought it was me because I did it before! Why's Shingo being so mean to me?' Whirling around, Chibi-Usa pleaded, "Ikuko-mama, I didn't do it... Shingo's trying to get me in trouble. You believe me, ne Onee-san?" Usagi stood mute.

"Chibi-Usa, don't even try to talk your way out of this... NOW UP TO YOUR ROOM!" Ikuko ordered.

She noted that Usagi was just looking at her sternly. Her stomach continued to churn. 'Oh Onee-san, you think I did it too. It's not your fault. It's mine for being bad before.' With tears welling up in her eyes, Chibi-Usa made her way slowly upstairs. Her sniffling could be heard as she climbed the stairs and entered her room.

# # # # #

'The healing must've gone wrong. That has to be it,' Usagi speculated while grimacing, 'She should be good but not swing back and forth... It's my fault. I have to fix this!' Usagi emphasized that thought by thumping the countertop. Her mother looked at her and misinterpreted the physical motion.

"Don't you worry, Usagi-chan... We both know it was her and she isn't going to slip out of being spanked."

'Spanked? Oh no!' "Mom... Ah, could I talk to her first, please?" Ikuko narrowed her eyes and looked at her daughter questioningly. 'I have to find out what went wrong... I'd feel really bad if she got spanked because of something I did.' "She's going to be scared of you. Maybe if I ask her... well... Chibi-Usa would talk more..."

The woman considered it for a few moments before agreeing, "All right, Usagi-chan... but you're not to make her think she's got away with anything. She was very naughty today."

Running up to her room, Usagi changed her dirty blouse and the slid down the hall to Chibi-Usa's room. 'Oh Imouto, I hope I can help you.'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was streaming tears. 'I didn't do it!' she whined as she sat on her bed. 'I know Ikuko-mama is really mad at me and I think Onee-san is too... Usagi trusted me and now she'll hate me. I should talk to Shingo and ask him not to get me into trouble. I know he's really nice. I was bad before but now maybe he'll stop.'

Just then, she heard the door quietly open. Looking up, Chibi-Usa saw that it was Usagi. 'Oh Onee-san! Gomen nasai.' The older girl had a pensive look on her face. Slipping into the room, she closed the door and quietly walked over to the bed. Sitting down, she regarded Chibi-Usa for a few seconds before lifting her into a hug.

"Chibi-Usa-chan... Imouto... Why did you do that?" Usagi asked softly while hugging the still crying little girl, "I thought you were with Mamoru-kun at his apartment... Were you mad at me? I know you wanted to go to Rei's with me the other day." 'Please tell me, Imouto.'

Chibi-Usa was quiet for a couple of minutes before saying, "But Usagi-san, I didn't do it... Chiba-san dropped me off just when Ikuko-mama and you came outside. I think Shingo-kun did it to get me into trouble. I don't know why he's being so mean." She buried her head into Usagi's shoulder and continued to cry.

Usagi wrinkled her forehead slightly and asked, "Imouto, how can you lie like that and tell me you didn't do it when you hit me with two eggs?"

'Nani?' Chibi-Usa's face went through a mixture of emotions. Sliding from confusion to fear and back. Shaking her head, Chibi-Usa said confused, "Iie, Onee-san, I would never do that to you... I love you. I told Ikuko-mama the truth... Won't you believe me... Please?" she begged sobbing.

'She's lost her memory!' Usagi thought, 'Boy this is going to be hard on her... I mean this is my fault! The healing didn't work for some reason...' Rubbing Chibi-Usa's back, Usagi steeled herself before saying flatly, "Imouto... I know what I saw. I know what YOU did. You WERE in the kitchen." 'Poor little girl... Why did I do this to you?'

'I can't remember it though! If Onee-san says I did it, then I did, but I don't remember! Onee-san would never lie to me.' Chibi-Usa started to cry harder. She didn't understand what was going on. Everything was very confusing to her. 'What's happening to make me bad?'

After a bit, she stopped crying and sniffled, 'Onee-san's being really good about this... She's didn't yell at me... and she's hugging me.' Chibi-Usa snuggled a little deeper into Usagi before whispering out, "Onee-san... wha... what's Ikuko-mama going to do?"

"That all depends..." Both girls jumped at the sound of Ikuko's voice in the doorway. Chibi-Usa slid off of Usagi's lap and walked over to Ikuko.

"Ikuko-mama... Gomen nasai! Gomen nasai!" She sniffled. "I don't remember what I did but I believe it when Onee-san says I was bad." She stood with her head bowed waiting for her aunt to do something.

'Maybe Usagi straightened her out. Usagi was hugging her and she does really seem sorry... But why wouldn't she remember?' Usagi looked to her mother pleading with her eyes to be lenient with the child. Ikuko considered for a moment and made her decision. "I'm going to ground you, Chibi-Usa... for three days... that means no TV... Only school and here. You don't go anywhere else. Also, you have to go downstairs and clean up the mess you made in the kitchen." She paused. "And this will be the LAST time I go easy on you, young lady... I think you're old enough to know what's right and wrong. Do you understand?"

"Hai," Chibi-Usa softly answered bowing her head once more. 'Arigato, Ikuko-mama. I won't be bad again, I promise... But why don't I remember? Onee-san will help me.' With that, Ikuko walked out of the room.

# # # # #

"Baka commoners!" Chibi-Usa growled as she walked down the street. "I gotta get out of this disgusting outfit!" She was still wearing her blue sailor fuku and not enjoying it one bit. Another thought of more importance struck her, 'I have to get the Ginzuishou and get out of here before that old hag actually manages to catch me again... Now where would baka 'Chibi-Usa' hide it?'

Seeing a small park, Chibi-Usa entered and, making sure the bench was as clean as possible, perched on it. She sat there considering the possible locations. 'Would Mamo-chan have it? Iie, I don't think so. He suffered enough with 'Chibi-Usa'. Anyway, he'd give it to me if he had it. Hmm... Who else might she'd given it to?'

"Konnichiwa Chibi-Usa-chan. What are you doing here all by yourself?" a cheerful voice behind her sang.

The girl jumped up and recognized it was Aino Minako. "What did you call me?" Chibi-Usa snarled out. 'How dare she associate me with that baka.'

"Chibi-Usa-chan," Minako repeated now somewhat confused over her reaction to it.

"My name's NOT 'Chibi-Usa'! It's 'USAGI'! That blundering baka Odango Atama is 'Chibi-Usa'!" Chibi-Usa glared at the shocked Minako defying her to contradict that statement.

"Umm... ah... Okay 'Usagi-chan', what are you doing here all by yourself?"

Chibi-Usa narrowed her eyes and squinted at ribbon-wearing blonde for several seconds before saying, "As a princess, I have the right to go where I wish..." Then an idea formed and Chibi-Usa grinned subtlety. "Minako, you'd like to take me to your place for supper, ne?"

"I would?" Minako asked. 'She's acting so strange. What on earth is going on? From what Usagi told me, this IS NOT the Chibi-Usa who confided in her.'

"Hai. You're not that baka, ne? You're smarter than 'Chibi-Usa' is, ne?" she questioned sarcastically. 'Kami-sama, this blonde is a ditz!' Minako was getting confused and just stood there blankly staring at the little girl.

After a moment, Minako replied, "Sure, I'd like to have you over to my place for supper." 'She's being so rude. I've got to figure out what's going on...'

"Sugoi! You may lead the way." Chibi-Usa hopped off the bench and followed the teen out of the park and down the street. 'She's definitely NOT one of my smarter subjects but she figured it out eventually. Finally, someone that at least is more receptive to the lessons of toadying!'

# # # # #

"I'll get it, Mom!" Usagi called and dashed for the phone. "Moshi moshi... Minako-chan... What's... Nani?" This last bit brought curious looks from the rest of the family. Noticing this, Usagi lowered her voice and continued, "Minako-chan, you've gotta be wrong... Well iie, she was in her room and I was doing my homework... Yeah but... I don't think... Hai, ja ne." Hanging up the phone, Usagi stood there for a couple of minutes looking off into space.

"What was that all about, dear?" Ikuko asked.

This startled Usagi. 'I can't tell her the truth but I don't like lying to Mom... I know...' "Ah... that was Minako. She was just telling me about her unexpected house guest she had." 'Oh way to go! That was pretty lame! But it wasn't a lie.'

"What about her house guest?"

"Ah... they... they got tickets to a show and... wanna know if Chibi-Usa-chan and I wanted to go but I said we couldn't." Usagi knew by the look on Ikuko's face that her mother wasn't buying the story but to her surprise, she didn't say anything else about the story. 'How do moms always know when you're not telling the whole truth?'

Instead, she turned to Chibi-Usa who was sitting quietly at the table and suggested, "I think maybe you should go to bed early tonight." 'Maybe it was just crankiness...' Shingo snickered and Ikuko turned to him. "Would you like to go to bed early as well?" Shingo became solemn and shook his head no.

Chibi-Usa hopped out of the chair, said goodnight, and started up the stairs. She, absorbed in her thoughts, didn't hear Usagi following behind her. 'Onee-san probably doesn't want me to sleep in her room. I don't blame her either. I've been so naughty.' Chibi-Usa was about to open her bedroom door when Usagi asked, "Imouto, aren't you going to sleep in my room?"

Chibi-Usa turned around and looked hopefully at Usagi. "Onee-san, you'd still let me? Even when I was bad?"

"Hai," Usagi said. 'I want to keep a closer eye on you. Although I can't believe that Minako thinks that you wrecked some of her stuffed animals searching for the Ginzuishou. It just doesn't seem like you. I already told you I'd help save your mommy.'

A smile spread across the girl's face and she walked over and hugged Usagi's legs. 'She's so nice to me especially after what I did to her. Onee-san will help me be good.' Chibi-Usa slipped under the covers and listened to Usagi read her a bedtime story, which improved her spirits tenfold.

Something was bothering Usagi so after putting the book away she asked, "Imouto, did you want me to call you 'Usagi'?" Chibi-Usa looked at her rather confused so Usagi continued, "You told Mamoru that your name was 'Usagi' and in the kitchen you called me 'Chibi-Usa'."

Chibi-Usa couldn't help but giggle at the question. "Iie, Onee-san, I wanna be called 'Chibi-Usa'. You're my onee-san and your name is 'Usagi'. It's a great honor for me to share your name. I love you very much." 'Why would I call her Chibi-Usa? It's so silly. I'm littler than her,' she giggled to herself.

"I love you too... Ah, Imouto... in the kitchen, you also said you were a princess. Are you?" Usagi's curiosity had to be satisfied.

The child whimpered slightly before saying, "I let that slip?" 'Puu is going to be mad at me for telling her.'

"You did say you were," Usagi prodded while stroking her strawberry-blond hair, "I just wanted to know if it was true, Imouto."

Chibi-Usa was silent for a long time before saying softly, "Hai, it is true." 'Please don't ask me anymore...'

Usagi sensing that Chibi-Usa didn't want to talk about it let the subject drop and said, "Goodnight, Imouto." Usagi thought, 'Why is everybody blaming things on Chibi-Usa all of a sudden? Did she sneak out and go over to Minako's? I thought she was here. She must be awfully quick to get there and back so fast.'

# # # # #

The next day after school found Hino Rei walking down the street. She was on her way over to the Crown Arcade when she noticed Chibi-Usa coming towards her in a blue dress that was just within decency codes. She couldn't believe it. 'I wouldn't think Tsukino-san would let her out in that... I didn't even think Usagi would let her out in that... I know Usagi is a ditz sometimes but...' Then a wry smile spread across her face. 'Usagi would probably want to wear it to attract Mamoru. Still...'

Rei noticed that the girl was alone and headed for Mamoru's. Chibi-Usa wanted to see what his reaction would be to her new dress. Rei started to follow but suddenly felt an odd sensation. Stopping, she pondering the situation, 'The Black Moon Family! They're around here somewhere!' Ducking into an alleyway, she alerted the others, "I think the enemy is after Chibi-Usa again."

"Nani? Where? I just walked her home from school!" came Usagi panicked voice.

"Is she with you?" Ami asked.

"Uh..." There was silence for several seconds while Usagi quickly checked before she said, "Iie and she isn't in her room. Damn!"

Rei blinked. After telling the others where she was, she transformed into Sailor Mars. She then tried to find Chibi-Usa once again but the little girl had disappeared. 'Kami-sama, I hope the enemy didn't get her!'

# # # # #

"Onee-san?" Chibi-Usa called. She had just gone to the bathroom but Usagi seemed to have left in a hurry for some reason. 'Where did she go? I wanted Onee-san to help me with my homework.'

# # # # #

Mamoru felt Usagi transform but before he could leave to help, he heard a knock on his door. Answering it, he saw Chibi-Usa in yet another inappropriate dress. 'I really must talk to Usagi about those things.'

"Konnichiwa Mamo-chan!" Chibi-Usa beamed, "I'm glad to see you're ready to take me out on a date but don't you think it's a little early?"

"Ah Chibi-Usa..."

"USAGI!" she corrected.

"Right..." Mamoru looked confused for several seconds before saying, "What happened to Chibi-Usa-chan?"

"I don't know why you care about that baka!" 'I'm going to have to use stronger measures.' Bouncing Luna-P, she called, "Luna-P HENGE!" changing it into an umbrella. Mamoru wondered how Chibi-Usa was able to do such a trick. Before he could ask, she started to hypnotize Mamoru saying repeatedly, "You love me, Mamo-chan... You want to be my boyfriend, ne?"

Mamoru's mind struggled for a while before he was overwhelmed by Luna-P's hypnotic powers. Smiling down at Chibi-Usa, he announced, "Usako, what do you say I treat you to a big dinner?"

Nodding vigorously, Chibi-Usa stepped out of the doorway and let Mamoru lead the way down the hall. 'He will be mine!'

# # # # #

"Usagi, I'm telling you I saw her in a dress that would make any woman blush. I'm surprised it isn't against the law!" Rei fumed. Back in their civilian forms, the girls were discussing the recent events.

"Rei-chan, I saw her go upstairs... I figured she wanted to do her homework with me so I followed." Usagi shrugged. "When I checked, she wasn't in her room and she wasn't downstairs..." 'I wonder how did she get way over here so fast?'

"You were actually going to do homework, Odango Atama?" Rei asked. She looked like she didn't believe her pigtailed friend at all.

Before a tongue war could start, Ami interrupted, "Has she been acting strangely lately, Usagi-chan?"

Usagi froze for a moment before saying, "Iie... Not that I could figure out. We had a blow up yesterday... and Minako-chan supposedly had her stuffed animals destroyed by Chibi-Usa..." 'I can't tell them what I've done.'

"You don't believe me?" Minako whined.

Makoto chimed in, "Well... it could have been Artemis, Minako-chan. I mean... he's always been jealous of them." Minako stuck her tongue out while Usagi snickered; they didn't normally get a chance to tease Minako.

"Minna-san, I need to get back home," Usagi declared. "Mom will start asking questions if I'm late and I've had my fill of questions for awhile."

# # # # #

The next day Chibi-Usa spotted Luna and smiled evilly. 'Time for a little revenge. I remember what you did to me, kitty, and this would be good payback to 'Chibi-Usa'...' Slowly, pretending to be friendly, she approached the Lunar Cat who was watching her trying to figure out what she was doing home from school so early.

Ikuko came up the stairs a few minutes later and listened. It sounded like water running and something thrashing around. Loud hissing, mewing, and growling sounds were evident as well. Walking into the bathroom, she was horrified to see Chibi-Usa holding Luna by all four legs while dipping her repeatedly in water.

"Iie, you'll pay for scratching me!" the child declared and shoved the very wet angry Luna under the water and held the poor cat there.

Her aunt's reaction was immediate. She ran forward and scooped Chibi-Usa up while saying, "Let Luna go NOW!"

The surprise of being discovered was enough for Chibi-Usa to let Luna slip out of her grasp; Luna landed in the water. Ikuko kept a firm grip on Chibi-Usa with one hand while scooping the drenched cat out of the water with the other. She made sure that Luna was okay other than being wet. Then she picked Chibi-Usa up and said, "CHIBI-USA! I've been lenient with you... I don't know what you're doing home from school but I won't tolerate you hurting Luna."

"Put me down, you commoner! I'm a princess!" Chibi-Usa shouted while struggling to get free.

"This is a 'commoner' that's going to spank you, young lady! Your behavior is not something to be proud of. You've dishonored our entire family." With that, Mrs. Tsukino started towards Chibi-Usa's room. The child fought her all the way though. This time, Ikuko was prepared. She wouldn't tolerate any tricks or attempts to get away.

As they arrived at the door to her bedroom, Chibi-Usa grabbed hold of the doorknob... then the frame, all the while yelling that Ikuko better not lay a hand on her. It was a valiant effort to stave off doom but doom was stronger and finally got Chibi-Usa into her room. Luna followed behind with a certain satisfaction that her tormentor would be punished.

Placing the struggling child across her lap, Ikuko spanked Chibi-Usa who with every stroke promised severe penalties for touching royalty. Ikuko, after a few swats, satisfied that she'd had shown her displeasure, demanded, "Now get into your school fuku right now. I'm taking you back to school."

With tears of pain and anger running down her cheeks, Chibi-Usa was about to tell the woman to get lost when she thought better of it. 'How dare you make me cry! You just wait... I'll get my revenge!' Chibi-Usa vowed. 'What I did to those baka, 'Chibi-Usa' and Shingo, will have been nothing. Now get out, old hag, so I can change!' She stood there for a minute thinking Ikuko would leave but she didn't.

"Chibi-Usa, I'm not leaving. You have a choice: either put your school fuku on and come with me in the next five minutes, or I spank you again and I'll put your fuku on you myself."

'Damn! I think she would too... I better not tell her to stop calling me by that baka's name.' Reluctantly, and muttering under her breath, Chibi-Usa put the hated piece of clothing on and left with Ikuko. 'YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was not pleased. She had to wear that blasted disgustingly cute school uniform again. Her aunt was rather insistent about it. 'Good thing I was able to slip away once that old hag thought I had went into the school...' Although for what she was doing at this moment, it helped wearing, as Chibi-Usa put it, "the kawaii crap". Last night's date with Mamoru was great except for the waiter... 'Why did he refuse to serve me the drink I wished for? He made me so mad. Even Mamoru agreed with him! I see I'll have to work on that...'

Chibi-Usa walked into a liquor store posing as a child of one of the customers. She was keeping close enough to a couple so that she would look like their little girl. Occasionally, she'd slide a bottle silently off the shelf and into the leather bag that she had made Luna-P become. She had to force it to into that form. 'Four's enough... Why was it so hard to get Luna-P to change? Maybe that baka did something to it.'

As the couple moved to pay for their purchases, Chibi-Usa snuck out the door with another man. The store's alarm went off but it was the man who was detained suspected of shoplifting. Chibi-Usa smiled to herself; she and Mamoru were going to have a wonderful evening.

# # # # #

Usagi looked at the little girl curled up beside her. One little arm hugging Usagi. 'Imouto, you have been very good lately. But I think something has gone terribly wrong... I don't know how to make it better... I don't know what to do!'

It was early morning. Usagi had gotten little sleep that night. She had been wide-awake wondering what she was going to do. Sliding quietly out of bed, as to not wake her little cousin, she slipped out of the room and made her way to the bathroom. After a few minutes, she came out and was about to enter her own room again when she heard a sound come from Chibi-Usa's room. 'It can't be Chibi-Usa... She's asleep in my bed.'

Moving over to the other bedroom door, Usagi paused, one hand on the doorknob. The other was on her transformation brooch. Hearing the noise again, she slowly turned the doorknob, opened the door, and saw what appeared to be a small form lying on the bed. 'Chibi-Usa? Nah, it couldn't be.' Usagi took on a puzzled expression.

She was about to take a step inside when the small form muttered angrily, "I can't believe Mamo-chan threw out all that good booze! Kami-sama, he was mad! Only good thing that came out of that mess was him blaming 'Chibi-Usa'. Now that was good!"

It sounded like Chibi-Usa but Chibi-Usa was in her bed. 'I wouldn't give her booze! I mean it isn't good for her and it's against the law! I'm glad Mamoru poured it out but why would he blame me? Wait a second... Why am I worrying about that now?' Suppressing a whine, Usagi quietly entered the room to investigate. 'Kami-sama! It IS Chibi-Usa!' The child was lying atop the bed but was NOT wearing the bunny rabbit pajamas Usagi had just seen her in. 'How can this be? And what is she wearing? It looks like...' Usagi was thoroughly confused. She turned around and walked quietly back out. 'That's impossible!'

The child in the bed began to stir so the teen quickly retreated. Usagi pulled the door shut and began to head to her room. That's when the door to Chibi-Usa's bedroom suddenly opened and Chibi-Usa stepped out. She saw Usagi and gave a leering look. "Well, 'Chibi-Usa-KUN', what did you want? Did you see anything you liked?" She gave a quick little wiggle.

"I ah... thought I heard a noise... I thought it was a prowler," Usagi croaked out while trying not to get overly worked up about the fact that Chibi-Usa was standing in front of her wearing something that was by no means suited to a seven year old.

"Well, it was me!" Chibi-Usa hissed out. She had no desire to wake her aunt up. She wasn't ready for her... yet. "Now get lost, baka!"

Usagi complied and slipped into her room. There she saw the still sleeping form of Chibi-Usa in her bed where she had left her. She then realized what this meant. Sliding back under her covers, Usagi pulled Chibi-Usa into a protective hug while watching the door...

'TWO CHIBI-USAs! Kami-sama, what am I going to do?'

# # # # #

Chapter 6 "Do You Know What Your Cousin Did?"

The rising sun came over the horizon and filtered into Usagi's bedroom. Usagi had barely slept a wink during the night. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and she had a worried expression on her face. She didn't even notice the new day's arrival.

As Luna awoke, the first thing she observed was her charge and she looked horrible. 'What's wrong with her? She looks like she hasn't slept at all.' Misinterpreting the expression, Luna said, "Usagi-chan, I thought you studied."

The sound of the low voice made Usagi jump slightly. 'Nani? Imouto? Iie, it's just Luna.' After clearing her head of thoughts, she quickly made sure Chibi-Usa was still asleep. She couldn't help but smile when she saw the contented look on the little girl's face. 'Don't worry, little one,' Usagi thought, 'Somehow I'll make this right again. First thing I have to do is get you out of the house. My parents would freak if they knew there were two of you. It'll protect you from that evil little brat too... Who knows what she would do to you?'

"Usagi!" Luna hissed, "What's the matter?"

"I didn't get much sleep," Usagi admitted softly.

"Nani?" came the sleep-filled voice of Chibi-Usa; she'd only partially opened her eyes.

'Luna, why did you have to wake her up?' Thinking fast, Usagi said, "I said, 'Ohayo, Imouto, did you have a good sleep?'"

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Chibi-Usa sat up and smiled. Luna gave a warning hiss then leapt off the bed and left the room. Chibi-Usa shot a questioning look at her cousin who simply shrugged. Remembering Usagi's question, Chibi-Usa replied, "Hai Onee-san. I dreamt I was with my mommy."

"That's nice, Chibi-Usa-chan," Usagi responded. 'That's soooo kawaii.' The thought brought a smile to her face.

"What's funny, Onee-san?" the little girl asked while getting out of bed. 'Maybe Shingo's up... I have to talk to him and stop him from getting me in trouble. I don't want to cause Usagi no more trouble.'

"Nothing Imouto. I just thought of something funny..." Chibi-Usa began to walk towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"I want to see if Shingo-kun's awake. I wanna talk to him."

"Sure just try to be quiet, okay?"

"Hai!" With that, Chibi-Usa left the room. After several seconds, Luna came back into the room.

Usagi quickly returned to her worried state. 'I have to tell someone about this. It's too much to handle alone. Maybe Luna can help me but she'll tell the others. I know...' Usagi picked Luna up and closed the door before saying, "Luna, I need to talk to you but you have to promise not to tell any of the others."

The black cat looked suspiciously at her charge for several seconds before saying, "Usagi-chan, what did you do?" 'Maybe she'll tell me why she's acting so strangely around Chibi-Usa.'

"You have to promise me that you won't tell the others first. Please?" 'Luna wouldn't break a promise.'

"Usagi, tell me what you did. I won't promise not to tell the others if the situation demands it," Luna protested and set her eyes to stare stubbornly at Usagi.

Usagi was getting slightly worried. Glancing at the clock, she noticed that she'd have to get ready for school soon and she couldn't talk with Luna while Chibi-Usa was around so... "Okay, okay! Luna, I came home one day and found Chibi-Usa destroying my room. She was searching for the Ginzuishou again. I wasn't in the mood to take it so I grabbed her. We both yelled at each other and I got really mad and..." Luna was looking at her intently so, she continued, "I used the Ginzuishou to heal her because I thought the Dark Energy was infecting her but something went wrong and now there's two of them: an ultra-sweet one and ultra-nasty one..." With that, Usagi let go of Luna who fell to the floor and collapsed on her bed. 'There, I said it.'

Luna was in a state of shock. 'That's why Chibi-Usa and Usagi were acting so strange. I knew something was wrong. And Usagi...' She knew that Usagi was dense but she never believed her charge was that dense. Irritation soon took over for disbelief. Hopping up on the bed, Luna stalked over to the still panting Usagi and ranted, "I can't believe you did that to that poor little girl! And it took you this long to tell me what happened?"

"Keep it down!" Usagi hissed. "Luna, I just found out myself... Please don't tell the others. I know I should have listened to Ami. I really messed up and I want to try to fix it myself. Rei would never let me live it down... Please?"

The cat stared hard at her charge pondering for a long time before saying, "All right, I won't tell the others..." Usagi sighed in relief and started to thank Luna but was abruptly cut off, "There are conditions however." Usagi froze in place while the cat continued, "One, I'll tell all if anybody gets hurt. Two, this will be a limited time offer... YOU, Usagi, have to solve this problem within the week. I'm amazed your parents haven't found out yet! You'll have to send the 'sweet one' someplace else." 'Maybe this will teach you some responsibility.'

'Now where can I stash her? Makoto's... iie. Rei's... definitely not. I have enough trouble with the 'regular' Chibi-Usa as it is. I don't need Rei training a clone...' Usagi chuckled. Luna just glared at her. 'Hmmrrmm, have to watch that. Well I don't think Minako would be willing to either. She's still mad about her stuffed animals. So... that leaves Ami...' "What about Ami's? Chibi-Usa would probably like that. Ami-chan can help her with schoolwork and keep an eye on her at the same time. She's been worried about her anyway, Luna."

"Hai... and she's stayed at Ami's before so it won't look quite as suspicious. When are you going to tell her?"

"I'll ask Ami at lunch today and ask Chibi-Usa when she comes back from talking to Shingo."

"What if Chibi-Usa finds her other self?" Luna asked. 'After what the nasty one did to me, I can only imagine her reaction.'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa slipped out of Usagi's room and noticed Luna was watching her warily. 'Did I do something to Luna? She's acting so strangely around me,' she thought as she walked down to Shingo's room and knocked on his door softly.

Shingo opened the door and gave Chibi-Usa a strange look. "What happened to your pajamas?" He knew they were vastly different from the last ones he'd seen her in.

Thinking something was wrong, Chibi-Usa vainly tried to see if there was a hole in them. Shrugging, she decided to press on, "Can I please talk to you, Shingo-kun?" 'I'm sure he'll stop after I talk to him.'

"Well maybe..." Shingo grinned internally. 'Perfect time for a little revenge. She's caused me a lot of trouble. I've gotta think of something though.' Stepping inside, he let his enemy enter his room and closed the door. He began to quickly formulate a plan for revenge when Chibi-Usa said something that completely stopped him.

"Shingo-kun, why did you mess up the kitchen yesterday and blame it on me?"

"Me? I didn't do it, you did..." 'What's going on? She must have something up her sleeve. It's got to be some kind of trick.'

"But I don't remember. I'm trying really hard to be good. I don't want Usagi-chan to be mad at me anymore. Won't you please stop getting me into trouble, Shingo-kun?" Chibi-Usa pleaded.

"Me getting you into trouble?" Shingo demanded. "So I suppose I took control of you and tried to drown Luna?" The statement was dripping with sarcasm. Chibi-Usa had a shocked and horrified expression on her face. "Oh, don't play the innocent. Mom was telling Dad and I heard it."

"But I didn't... or at least I don't remember doing it," Chibi-Usa protested. 'What's going on? I don't remember any of this. Is he fibbing to me?'

"Don't remember, ne? How can you not remember trying to drown Luna and getting spanked?" Shingo was now incredulously staring at the seven year old; he couldn't believe his ears. 'This kid's getting way too weird for me.'

'Spanked?' Chibi-Usa thought, 'I would have remembered that... I'll have to ask Onee-san. She'll tell me the truth. I don't think Shingo's going to stop getting me into trouble.' With that thought, she left his room and started back towards Usagi's room. Pausing outside the door, she thought she heard voices. Knocking, she entered and looked around. Only Usagi and Luna were inside the room. 'So, who was she talking to?'

# # # # #

"Chibi-Usa-chan, how would you like to stay at Ami-chan's?" Usagi asked when Chibi-Usa came back from her talk with Shingo.

The girl seemed flustered by something but when she heard Usagi's question, she took on a hurt expression. 'What did I do? Onee-san is trying to get rid of me. She doesn't want me around anymore.' Tears were already forming in her eyes.

Usagi, seeing the tears, walked over to Chibi-Usa and squatted down to look her in the face. "What's the matter, Imouto? I thought you'd like to stay over at Ami-chan's."

"Why do you want to get rid of me, Onee-san? Was it because I hurt Luna? I don't remember doing it!" Chibi-Usa sobbed out. 'Maybe she won't even help me save my mommy...'

'Oh Imouto!' Usagi thought as she pulled the child into a comforting embrace. Picking Chibi-Usa up, she carried her over to the bed and sat down with her on her lap. "Imouto, I don't want to get rid of you... Why would you think that? And you didn't hurt Luna. I just thought that you'd like to stay with Ami-chan for a few days."

"I DIDN'T hurt Luna?" Chibi-Usa sniffled out. 'Shingo WAS fibbing to me.'

"Iie, I don't think you would," confirmed Usagi. Luna added her reassurance by rubbing up against Chibi-Usa's leg. "See... she's telling you that you didn't hurt her either."

"B-but Shingo-kun said I tried to drown Luna and that Ikuko-mama spanked me... Why would he make something like that up?" Chibi-Usa protested. 'Mommy and Daddy would be very mad that I was bad...'

"Ah... Maybe he doesn't like you spending so much time with me. He thinks that you should help him bug me," Usagi explained. 'I'm running out of time...' "Imouto, you want to be good, ne?" Chibi-Usa nodded. "Well if you stay at Ami-chan's for a few days, I'm pretty sure you'll be extra good. That will show him. I'm not mad at you and I don't want to get rid of you. You're my imouto after all." This brought a slight smile to Chibi-Usa's face. "So will you go?"

'I want to be good. Maybe if I go to Ami's, I can show that I can be really good... She let me stay there before and that was fun. She can even help me with my homework but...' Chibi-Usa sniffled once more before saying, "Hai, Onee-san. But I'd like to stay with you. I will really miss you."

"I love you, Imouto. Nothing will ever change that," Usagi replied. 'Kami-sama, what have I done to this poor girl?' "I'm sure that when you come back from Ami-chan's, you won't be blamed for anything! Now we should get dressed or we'll both be late for school."

# # # # #

"Hi guys!" Usagi declared brightly, "Um... Ami-chan, can I talk to alone?"

Ami and Makoto along with Naru gave Usagi a strange look. Usagi wanted to talk instead of eat? Setting her book down, Ami got up and followed Usagi off a little before Usagi turned to her with a pensive look on her face.

"Usagi-chan, if you're going to ask for my math notes..." Ami was cut off when her friend finally worked up enough nerve to ask her question.

"Ami-chan, could you watch Chibi-Usa for a few days?"

Mizuno Ami had a look of surprise. "Why, Usagi-chan? Can't you watch her? It would be easier and with Luna there. I'm sure there's nothing special I can do."

"Well... I've just been having problems and well... Please Ami-chan, I asked Chibi-Usa if she wanted to stay with you for a few days and she practically broke down in tears because she thought I was trying to get rid of her."

Ami frowned slightly. 'That's very odd behavior for her.' "Really? What other strange behavior have you observed?"

"Well she's been having these mood swings. I mean she first wants to be called Usagi and then she wouldn't even consider being called anything else but Chibi-Usa," Usagi explained. 'Well, it isn't a lie... not the complete truth but...' As a little extra incentive, Usagi added, "And she somehow keeps slipping away from me. With your minicomputer, you could keep track of her, couldn't you?" 'That should do it.'

"All right Usagi-chan," Ami agreed. This was a mystery that she would like to solve. 'Maybe it's best that I closely observe Chibi-Usa for awhile.' "When are you going to drop her off?"

"I'll go pick her up from school and swing by your place."

"I have juku today..." Ami started to say but again Usagi cut her off.

"She'd probably like to go with you to juku, Ami-chan. Oh there's the bell... Ja, gotta go." With that, Usagi scurried off back to class before Ami could say anything else.

# # # # #

Usagi arrived at Chibi-Usa's school on time. She expected Chibi-Usa's normal exuberant greeting. Instead, she found the little girl sullenly waiting for her. 'Kami-sama, this is going to be a harder sell than I thought.' Usagi feigned a smile. "Imouto, ready to go?"

"Hai," came the soft reply.

"Imouto, we have to go to Ami's right away, but I'll drop by later tonight to read you a story and drop off some clothes." The child's only response was to sniffle a little bit. Picking her up into a hug, Usagi reiterated, "Imouto, I told you I'm not trying to get rid of you."

"But I'll REALLY miss you... It's like being away from Mommy all over again," Chibi-Usa implored. She was trying her best not to cry. "Please Onee-san, can't I stay with you?"

Starting to walk, Usagi said, "Imouto, I'll miss you too. I promise I'll come and walk you to and from school every day. You'll see me plenty."

The girl was getting desperate. "But Onee-san, please? I really wanna stay with you!"

Usagi grimaced. 'Darn, I was hoping this would go easier... Well I don't have much choice.' "Chibi-Usa-chan, I understand how you feel but you have to stay with Ami for a few days or you will get blamed for being bad. I know you can be good and I don't want you getting into trouble and staying with Ami for a few days will help do that. Do you understand?"

"Hai," Chibi-Usa mumbled. She didn't like it but Onee-san had said she had to. 'She must really not like me. Why Onee-san?' She couldn't hold the tears back any longer.

'It will also get the 'good' Chibi-Usa away from the 'evil' one. Who knows what that brat might do to her. I don't even think this little girl would fight back... In fact, I think she'd try and give the 'evil' one a hug and say that she forgives her! I can't take that chance.'

As an afterthought, Usagi added, "You can't tell Ami that I said you had to stay there." Chibi-Usa seemed to start to protest but subsided after awhile and the two girls headed for Ami's apartment.

# # # # #

The next few days were peculiar for the Sailor Senshi and the Tsukino's. Usagi found that staying home was not a good idea because the evil Chibi-Usa used every possible opportunity to attack or humiliate both her and her brother. Even threat of punishment from her parents didn't faze her. Her disrespect of them was increasing at an alarming rate.

Nor were the Sailor Senshi immune. Makoto had caught Chibi-Usa rummaging through her belongings when she came home from school. Before she could question how the child had gotten into her apartment, Chibi-Usa used Luna-P to distract her and made her getaway.

Ami had been assaulted by Chibi-Usa who had decided that Ami, being the brightest one, must keep the Ginzuishou for her idiot cousin. Needless to say, Ami was rather shocked when she found that four blocks away, Chibi-Usa along with Usagi were chatting pleasantly while having ice cream. This thoroughly confused all the parties involved. Usagi vehemently defended Chibi-Usa who seemed about to break down again. Ami was similarly stumped when the energy reading she'd received from Chibi-Usa who attacked her seemed to disappear completely later. Something was wrong here. Ami suspected her friend of knowing more than she was telling but didn't press the issue.

Artemis was only barely saved from a gruesome fate by Minako later that same day. Again, Chibi-Usa managed to slip away but this time, it was Ami who defended Chibi-Usa. She knew they'd been doing homework and then later Usagi had come over to read the girl a story. The child was never out of her sight.

Even Rei and the Hikawa Shrine grounds were not immune to the terror. Chibi-Usa seemed to be on a wild rampage although it wasn't nearly as bad as the others experienced; the damage was less concentrated but spread over a wider area.

For Usagi, things seemed to be escalating at a frantic pace. But it all came to a head that Friday afternoon while Usagi was walking home from dropping Chibi-Usa off at Ami's. The only good thing was that Usagi managed to grab Luna-P and take it to the good Chibi-Usa.

# # # # #

Usagi came walking up the front path of her house and was about to open the door when it was flung open. Chibi-Usa came bolting out past her and turned down the street at a furious pace. Ikuko wasn't far behind yelling at the top of her lungs. She stopped a few steps past Usagi. It was obvious she couldn't catch the fleeing child.

"YOU GET BACK HERE! WHEN I GET A HOLD OF YOU, YOUNG LADY, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SIT FOR A WEEK!" Clutched in Ikuko's hand was a nice red dress that seemed to be stained somehow.

Usagi looked at her mother for a second before asking, "Mom, what happened?" She'd never seen her mother like this.

Ikuko was almost hyperventilating. "That... that... Chibi-Usa was... snooping through my closet! I came into my room and found the dress your father gave me as an anniversary present spread on the bed and she was spilling something blue on it. Now it's ruined; it was a permanent dye." Ikuko began to calm down.

"I'll go look for her," Usagi declared. Property damage was one thing but spoiling something of her mother's was a different matter. It had just become personal.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was furious, "BAKA OLD HAG! I wasn't done! Threaten me will you! I'll show you, then I'll really show 'Chibi-Usa'! I have to find the Ginzuishou!" She continued to wander the darkening streets while planning her next move. One thing was certain... She was tired of that hellhole. She'd get Baka Odango Atama to tell her where the Ginzuishou was and then she'd be able to get out of this primitive place.

It was now late at night; the streets were deserted except for a few people. Chibi-Usa was not scared though. 'They would not dare touch royalty. They all can tell a woman of grace, beauty, and intelligence when they see one. My subjects still must learn...'

Out of frustration, she picked up a large rock and threw it as hard as she could. It sailed through the air and shattered a window of a nearby store. The tinkling sound of glass was pleasant and she felt slightly better.

Picking up another rock, she hurled it towards another window. It hit the window smashing it sending shards flying away which sparkled in the streetlight. To Chibi-Usa, it was a beautiful sight to behold. Feeling even better, she spotted a shop selling precious jewels. 'I need some new items to impress Mamo-chan since that old hag took away all my good stuff!' Picking up the largest rock she could find, she prepared to throw it when a voice from behind her startled her.

"Hold it right there, young lady!"

Spinning around, Chibi-Usa saw two police officers standing on either side of a police car with flashing lights. She smiled slightly. 'I'm royalty. How dare they stop me in my play! They will learn...' With that thought, she cocked her arm to throw the rock. They would not stop her this night.

# # # # #

Chapter 7 "Revelations"

With a mighty heave, Chibi-Usa threw the rock. It sailed over the head of one of the police officers who fortunately ducked. His partner ran towards Chibi-Usa and grabbed both of her hands while saying, "That wasn't very polite for a young lady to do."

Her response was a snarl of rage and kicking the officer in the shin. "LET ME GO! YOU DARE TOUCH ROYALTY!"

The officer grunted but kept his grip firmly on the struggling child. The second officer came jogging over to see if his partner needed help. He looked at Chibi-Usa from a few meters away. "Why are you out this late throwing rocks, little girl?"

"Back off, jackass! I was playing!" Chibi-Usa shouted. 'How dare they! When I have the Ginzuishou, I'll teach them! I'll teach them all! Where's Luna-P? That BAKA 'Chibi-Usa' must have taken it.'

"Well, what do you think?" the one officer asked.

"I say we find out where she lives... Now, young lady, where do you live and we'll take you home to your parents."

'Hmmm... Mamoru's? Iie, these baka cops wouldn't believe it and it might get him in trouble... Certainly not to any of 'Chibi-Usa's' baka friends...' As Chibi-Usa was thinking that, the radio in the police car crackled into life. The officer who had been standing in front of her walked over and answered. After a few seconds, he came back and announced, "A missing persons report just came out, and you seem to match the description pretty well. You have a choice, little girl: now either you can tell us where you live and we take you home, or we'll take you down to Juvenile Hall and call these worried people to come see if you're the little girl they're looking for..."

"You wouldn't dare to that to royalty!"

"Just try me."

'Juvenile Hall... Me, a lady of grace and elegance, tossed in with common low life! And they just might keep me there... Anything that old hag would do is better than that. But I'll only play along long enough to get out of that hellhole. Hmmm, those 'Sisters' that were after me seem more my style...' "Okay, I'll tell you where I live." Chibi-Usa smiled slightly as she told the officers where the Tsukino residence was.

# # # # #

Flashing lights were the first sign that something was amiss. Quietly Usagi and Shingo along with Luna crept down the stairs. Shingo was enjoying Chibi-Usa's plight immensely. Ikuko was sitting at the kitchen table with red-rimmed eyes but the expression on her face was very hard to read. She was almost on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Kenji had one hand firmly clamped on his niece's shoulder while he talked to two of Tokyo's finest.

Usagi had never seen her father this furious before. Sure she seen him mad but never this mad. As her father bid the officers goodnight, bowed, and apologized for disturbing them, she could detect a slight shaking. After he closed the door, his voice was monotone in nature and very low, loud enough for those listening to him but certainly not his normal level. Usagi knew this meant trouble for Chibi-Usa.

"Property damage... curfew violation... being brought home by the police... disrespect for your elders... dishonoring your family..."

"Oh get a grip, old man!" Chibi-Usa quipped. "I was just having fun..." 'I'm sure he'll be more understanding of royalty than that old hag.'

"HAVING FUN?" Kenji's voice boomed.

Usagi and Shingo jumped and scurried up the stairs praying their father hadn't noticed them. Luckily, he was far too engrossed in the situation to pay attention to them. Luna stayed downstairs to observe what would happen. Ikuko had gotten up from the kitchen table and walked over to stand in front of Chibi-Usa.

"I will call your parents tomorrow... You will apologize to those shop owners and..." She was cut off by Chibi-Usa's sneer.

"Shut up, you old wrinkled thing! You can't make me do anything. I only came back here to stop them from putting me in that awful place for commoners. It's no place for royalty like myself. I'll do what I like when I like."

Ikuko had inhaled sharply; she wasn't used to this. The strain finally got to her and she ran upstairs in tears. Kenji wasn't about to let that remark slide. Picking the little girl up and firmly placing her under one arm, he went up the stairs.

"Just what do you think you're doing? Let go of me, baka! I command you!" the little girl whined. "This is certainly not the way to treat royalty and I have other matters to take care of." 'He's just as baka as the old hag.'

"I'm taking care of 'other matters'," Kenji answered in a controlled voice. He stalked passed Usagi's room. Luna paused but then continued to follow. She wanted to be able to tell Usagi what happened. She slipped in before Kenji closed the door.

It suddenly dawned on Chibi-Usa exactly what Kenji was going to do so she started to struggle. 'I will simply not allow this!' she decided but she was having even less luck than she had with her aunt. He was apparently ready for her tricks.

Sitting down, he placed the child across his lap and spanked her soundly. After several seconds, he placed the crying child on the bed and headed towards the door, "I expect you to be in bed, young lady, when I get back... I'll tolerate none of your nonsense. Don't think I won't spank you again." With that, he left the room and went into his own to comfort his wife.

Chibi-Usa changed into the bunny pajamas she despised and hopped into bed. 'You just wait, baka old fart. Come and check on me, then I'll leave! I've had all of this that I'm going to take. I'm going to go where I'll be treated with the 'dignity and respect' that royalty like ME deserves.' She brushed away some tears from her eyes and laid on her side. 'I'll get Rubeus to help me get the Ginzuishou and then I'll get all the baka back that were mean to me!'

After several minutes, Kenji came back in and decreed while turning out the lights, "No more... This dishonorable behavior stops here and now... DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"

"Hai," came the harsh reply. 'Old baka.'

Kenji started towards the bed but thought better of it. Bidding the sulking child goodnight, he left and shut the door. Unobserved by either human, Luna watched from a corner in the room. After a few moments, the girl slipped out of bed, changed into a more 'appropriate' outfit, and went out the window taking several pieces of clothing with her. Chibi-Usa looked back, shook her fist, and swore revenge. No one saw or heard her but Luna.

A moment later, the black cat followed her. 'No time to tell Usagi. I've got to keep track of her. With the state she's in, there's no telling what she'll do.' She hopped up on the roof and then down to Usagi's window. She'd have to tell her charge that time had just run out on their deal. 'Gomen Usagi. The danger is too great. When I get back, the Sailor Senshi must be told.' Both Chibi-Usa and Luna disappeared into the Tokyo night.

# # # # #

Ami stirred slightly; she could hear a noise. She laid in bed eyes closed trying to figure out what it was. It soon became obvious that it was Chibi-Usa who was snuggled up beside her. Turning her head, she opened her eyes and could see the tears reflecting the moonlight filtering through the window on her face.

'She's been so nice. Why would she be crying?' "What's wrong, Chibi-Usa-chan?" the teen asked softly.

Chibi-Usa sobbed a little before choking out, "Gomen, Ami-chan, I didn't mean to wake you up."

Ami sat up and pulled the child into a hug. "Don't worry about it. Now what's the matter? Don't you feel good, little one?"

It was several seconds before the child answered, "I really want Onee-san to let me come home. I do like staying with you but I want my onee-san..." Chibi-Usa sobbed a couple more times before continuing, "I've been here a long time, but Onee-san still won't let me come home..." Then in an almost inaudible voice, she said, "She must hate me."

Ami wasn't really sure what to do; she'd never had to deal with this type of situation before. A sick child she could handle... but a homesick child was a different story. "Do you want me to call Usagi-chan and have her come and get you?"

"IIE!" Chibi-Usa nearly shouted, "Onee-san said I had to stay here!" Chibi-Usa gasped. 'Oh no, Onee-san told me I wasn't supposed to tell Ami that she said I had to stay here. She'll hate me more now.' This realization just caused the very miserable child to sink even further. Burying her head in Ami's shoulder, she just let vent to all the frustration of the past few days. 'What's going on... I... I'm just so mixed up.'

The blue-haired teen was also in shock from what the girl revealed. 'This is strange... I really think I should talk to Usagi. She obviously knows something about this mystery. Even after all my analysis, I can't solve it and this child is suffering for it. She doesn't deserve it.' Picking Chibi-Usa up, who still had her head snuggled into Ami's shoulder but had run dry of tears, Ami walked down the hall to the bathroom and set the child on the counter beside the washbasin.

She released her hold and drew away. Chibi-Usa seemed embarrassed by her actions and so didn't look at Ami. Ami got out a washcloth, dampened it with water, lifted her tear-streaked face, and started gently to wipe away her tears.

After she was done, Ami remarked, "Now you look more like that kawaii little girl that's staying with me." Chibi-Usa managed to smile at the compliment. "You know, you really do look like Usagi-chan."

"Honto? When I grow up, I hope I'll be as pretty as Onee-san."

"Hai." 'She really loves Usagi.' Ami smiled and continued, "I'm very sure that she cares about you very much..."

"Onee-san said... she loved me," Chibi-Usa mumbled out.

"Well if she said that, then she DOES love you. Usagi-chan wouldn't lie about something like that," Ami put in. She noticed that Chibi-Usa was starting to come out of her depression slightly. 'Child psychology isn't so difficult once you get the hang of it. I will have to get some more books on it from the library.' "Now what if tomorrow we both ask Usagi if you can come back home?"

"Hai, arigato Ami-chan." 'She's really nice. I see why she's Onee-san's friend.'

Picking Chibi-Usa back up, she said, "You're welcome, Chibi-Usa-chan..." Walking back to her room, Ami tucked the little girl into bed and commented, "I'll be back in a few minutes. You try and go to sleep, okay little one?"

"Hai." And with that, Chibi-Usa snuggled under the covers. She was at least a little happier and was soon dreaming that she was with her onee-san and her mommy.

# # # # #

Mizuno Ami walked down to the kitchen and was glad her mother was working the late shift. She would have appreciated her mother's advice but she now was considering calling Usagi on the communicator, then she hesitated. If she pushed her blond friend, she just might clam up tighter and this mystery would only grow.

That's when the communicator beeped. Jumping slightly, she answered. 'Who would be calling me at this hour?' She was even more surprised to hear Usagi's voice come over clearly.

"Ami-chan, did I wake you?"

"Iie... I was about to call you?" Ami said.

"Ami-chan, is your mom home?"

Ami's curiosity piqued, "Iie, she's working tonight. Why?"

"I'm on my way over. Meet me at the front door and please make sure Chibi-Usa doesn't know." With that, Usagi cut the connection before Ami could inquire further. Things had certainly turned more interesting.

# # # # #

Luna had followed the evil Chibi-Usa twin to a hotel. She had crept behind the front desk and grabbed a room key. Fiddling with the computer, she marked the room as occupied and paid in full. Luna wondered what she'd do next but the only thing she did do was lounge around the room plotting revenge on the Tsukino's. Figuring that she'd stay there for a little while, Luna had rushed back to Usagi and promptly told her what the situation was.

To her surprise, Usagi hadn't put up much of a fuss over having to tell the other Senshi what she did. Now Usagi was heading over to Ami's to retrieve the good one to take the evil one's place. Luna herself was on her way back to the hotel to keep tabs on the evil one.

Sitting outside on the balcony, Luna thought, 'I have a feeling this is going to get really really confusing!'

# # # # #

Ami opened the door to a haggard looking Usagi who slipped into the house. They entered the living room and sat on the couch. Usagi caught her breath and seemed to be stalling for time. She was just about to throttle her friend when Usagi opened up with all guns and spilled everything that happened over the past week.

Needless to say, Ami was not pleased. "Usagi, I told you that it would probably go away in a few days. If you were having that much trouble, why didn't you simply tell us? We might have tried something else!"

"Ami-chan, please. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings but I was mad. I like Chibi-Usa but I thought that if I healed her like I did Ail and Ann, I could get her back to her normal self..."

"Well that certainly ISN'T her normal self. Are you sure you didn't do something else as well?" 'The poor little girl.'

"Err... well... I might have... kinda... wished for her to be ah... a little nicer."

"YOU WHAT?" Ami was now angry, a state which she rarely got in. 'Of all the lame, baka things to do!'

"Keep it down... I don't want her to hear this."

It was too late. "ONEE-SAN!" Chibi-Usa shouted with surprise and relief. She threw herself at Usagi who just managed to catch her. "What are you doing here? Why were you and Ami-chan fighting?" Chibi-Usa lost her smile and lowered her head as she blushed. She'd just admitted to eavesdropping on a conversation. 'That wasn't polite... I've tried so hard! She'll be mad.' A small sniffle escaped her.

Usagi smiled and hugged Chibi-Usa glad to see the little girl was okay. She looked over at Ami who was frowning. "Usagi-chan, you're going to have to tell her."

"Iie... It would be dangerous if I tell her... She might actually want to well... make friends." Usagi grimaced. She could just imagine what the evil one would do.

"USAGI!" Ami insisted exasperatedly, "She has a right to know... You did this to her! You have to tell her!"

The two older girls glared at each other over the top of Chibi-Usa's head. She was trying not to get involved. 'Why are you fighting about me?' All she really wanted to do was go home with her onee-san and have things be nice and quiet. Tears were about to form knowing she was the cause of this fight.

"You'll need her to use Luna-P on your parents you know... It wouldn't be fair to let her walk back into that house considering what..."

"Okay! Okay!" Usagi cut Ami off, "Ami-chan, could we have a few minutes alone, please?"

Ami nodded and left the room. Usagi got up and placed Chibi-Usa on the couch, kneeling in front of her. Usagi took a few breaths to steel herself. She really didn't want to tell this little girl what she'd done.

In the silence that followed, Chibi-Usa made her bid to go home. "Onee-san, please can I go home with you? I've tried to be really good and I'm so mixed up about the past little bit that I don't know what's going on!" 'Please Onee-san?'

Usagi ignored the question and launched into her explanation, "Imouto, you can come home... but you have to use Luna-P to make Mom, Dad, and Shingo forget all the bad things you did." Seeing the panicked expression that came onto the girl's face, Usagi pressed on, "Let me explain... Do you remember about a week ago that you messed up my room?" Chibi-Usa nodded but there were tears now in her eyes. She did not want to be reminded of her previous bad behavior. "Well do you remember what happened before you helped me clean up the room?"

Chibi-Usa scrunched her face up in concentration before saying, "I think you were going to spank me but I'm not sure... I remember you coming in and then us yelling but..." she trailed off and shrugged.

"Imouto, you had Dark Energy in you from the time Rubeus nearly caught you. You remember that?" Chibi-Usa nodded. "Well, you started to do things that you normally wouldn't... Bad things like throwing water-balloons and messing up the kitchen, do you understand?" and a tentative nod, "When I saw you wrecking my room, I got really mad. You wanted the Ginzuishou and I was tired of you being naughty and well..." Usagi trailed off and looked away for a few seconds.

"And what, Onee-san?" came the small voice. 'I already know this. Are you still mad at me for doing those things?'

Turning back, Usagi continued, "I thought that it was the Dark Energy that was making you be naughty so I used the Ginzuishou to heal you... I wanted you to be good again and well something went wrong." Usagi paused again. The child was confused. "I wished you could be a nicer little girl than you were before and so the Ginzuishou granted my wish. It cut you in half. All the good behavior went to you and all the naughty behavior went to another Chibi-Usa. Gomen nasai, Chibi-Usa-san." Usagi bowed her head hoping Chibi-Usa would understand and forgive her.

"I don't get it," Chibi-Usa admitted thoroughly confused. 'Why is Onee-san saying she's sorry?' Usagi gave a small cry of frustration and buried her face in the couch.

# # # # #

It had all been by accident. After getting a place to stay at the hotel, Chibi-Usa had gone back out to do some shopping and plan out how she'd contact those Sisters. She'd just started down towards the seedier nighttime establishments when who should she see but Beruche coming down the street. Luna was still trailing her.

Walking up to her, Chibi-Usa demanded, "Take me to see Rubeus... I have a proposition for him."

"Rabbit?" Beruche was surprised to see the Rabbit and even more so to hear her demand to see Rubeus... 'Sugoi! Rubeus will be so pleased. Maybe I'll be able to gain his favor over the others and get some special treatment like Cooan.'

"Call me 'Rabbit' again and DIE!" Beruche was shocked by the Rabbit's apparent lack of fear. She just stood and stared. After a moment, Chibi-Usa continued, "What are you waiting for? I, the Crowned Princess of Crystal Tokyo, command you to take me to Rubeus!"

"Hai, Your Highness..." Beruche agreed and they both walked over to an alleyway and teleported.

Luna stood stunned. 'This has just gotten serious!'

# # # # #

Chapter 8 "Negotiations"

Usagi had already gathered the clothing she'd brought for Chibi-Usa. She thanked Ami for taking care of the child and asked her to arrange a meeting at the Hikawa Shrine for later that day. Then Usagi left Ami's apartment carrying Chibi-Usa who was still clad in her bunny pajamas and set off for home.

Now as they walked, Chibi-Usa yawned. It was still early morning. The sun hadn't risen yet and the wind had a definite chill to it. Shivering slightly, the seven year old tried to snuggle a little deeper into Usagi's warmth. 'Onee-san...'

She was only partially awake when Usagi told her, "Imouto... You're going to have to sleep in your own bed when we get back." 'I don't think Mom could stand the shock of seeing Chibi-Usa sleeping with me right now.'

"Hai..." Chibi-Usa mumbled. She didn't care at this point. As far as she was concerned, anything would be okay as long as she got to go home with her onee-san. 'Arigato Onee-san. Arigato.'

Creeping softly into the house, Usagi and Chibi-Usa climbed up the stairs and into Chibi-Usa's room. She gave Chibi-Usa a hug and a light kiss before pulling the covers up firmly around the little girl. Now nearly asleep, Chibi-Usa mumbled out, "'Night Mommy..."

'I almost feel like your mother. Someday I hope I'll have a daughter like you...' the teen smiled at the sleeping child. With that, Usagi quietly sneaked out of Chibi-Usa's room and headed for her own. 'Oh, I hope I can help you, little one.' It had been a long night.

# # # # #

Making the Tsukino family forget all the horrible things the evil Chibi-Usa had done was more difficult than Usagi had thought. Even under Luna-P's influence, there were still some deep-seated emotions that couldn't be suppressed completely. Fortunately, for the most part, Ikuko and Kenji waved them off as stress related rather than child related troubles. Chibi-Usa was accepted by the family as a cute little girl who rarely caused trouble.

Shingo still resented Chibi-Usa to some degree but she seemed to accept this calmly. Usagi wrote it off as normal sibling-like jealousy and not outright hate. As Chibi-Usa had told her on the way to school that day, "Shingo tried to get me in trouble before but as long as you believe me, Onee-san, it doesn't bother me."

Giving a reassuring hug to Chibi-Usa, Usagi walked off towards school but paused long enough to watch her safely enter. She just didn't feel right about leaving that little girl, the little girl that she'd caused so much trouble to and she loved with all her heart, alone unprotected.

# # # # #

High above the City of Tokyo, unseen, was Rubeus' UFO. Sitting in the ship's brig was Chibi-Usa who at the moment wasn't very pleased. Beruche had brought her here and then teleported away without Rubeus even being present. She had been here several hours waiting and with each passing moment, her anger and frustration grew. She had come here to see Rubeus not to be a common prisoner.

She was now searching for a way out when Rubeus finally appeared and said smugly, "Ah Rabbit..."

"Listen to me!" Chibi-Usa whirled around and bellowed, "I'm only going to tell you this once! I'm Princess Usagi of Crystal Tokyo... NOT RABBIT!"

Rubeus paused, 'Hmmm... Strange... First, she surrenders to us and then she isn't afraid of me... What's gotten into her?' Then it suddenly hit him like a brick. 'My attack? Of course, she absorbed Dark Energy and now seems to be infused with it!' He could readily feel the energy pulsating from her with his senses. 'How could I be so lucky? Wiseman will be pleased!'

"Your lackeys kept me waiting here... This is NO WAY to treat royalty," Chibi-Usa growled out. 'I hope he says something...' She slowly looked over Rubeus almost leering. 'You know if I didn't want Mamoru... I think I could go for him.'

Rubeus gave a feral smile and bowed deeply. "Forgive me, 'Your Highness', would you like something to eat?"

"Iie, but thank you for offering. Arise, Rubeus. What I want is to get back at those commoners that treated me badly."

"Then why come to us?" 'What is she up to?'

"You have something I like... guts." 'But I still don't trust you.' "You do what you like and no one tells you to stop it. Your lackeys have the right idea... I was thinking we could make a deal."

The only thing keeping the Rabbit free was Rubeus' fascination with the new toy that happened to walk straight into his lair... "Then shall we commence negotiations, Your Highness?"

"Hai." And with that, they both teleported away.

# # # # #

After her eighth grade classes were complete for the day, Usagi walked to Chibi-Usa's elementary school but the child wasn't waiting for her. Fear started to build up in her. 'Kami-sama, where's Chibi-Usa? I hope that other one didn't get a hold of her and do something... I'd never forgive myself.' A false sense of reassurance came over her. 'Maybe Mom or Dad picked her up... but they knew I'd be doing that...' She was now almost in a panic. 'Okay Usagi... calm down. She's just inside somewhere.'

Usagi entered the school. She wandered into Chibi-Usa's classroom and found it empty. 'I've got to call Mom and Dad.' She looked around for the office. She figured that she might be able to use their telephone to contact her parents. As Usagi approached the office, she heard two teachers talking and their conversation piqued her interest.

"I've never seen a child so... sensitive to a mild rebuke."

"What did you say to her?"

"All I said was maybe she should have gotten a good night's rest that way she wouldn't have fallen asleep in my class."

For some reason, Usagi found this conversation just too familiar to pass up. She recognized one of the teachers and approached her tentatively. "Excuse me, Sensei..."

"Oh Tsukino-san... what can I do for you?"

"Have you seen my cousin, Chibi-Usa?" 'Please say hai.'

"Hai, she's laying down in the Infirmary... Tsukino-san, I hope you don't find this too personal but when I mildly rebuked your cousin for falling asleep, she acted like she had done the most horrible thing... and well..." the sensei trailed off but sent a questioning look towards Usagi.

"Sensei, Chibi-Usa-chan's just had... a rough past week or so... I think maybe in a week or two," 'Hopefully...' "Things should be back to normal."

"You should be proud of your cousin. She's been doing very well here lately then today... Well, I'll show you where she is. Hopefully, you can cheer her up, Tsukino-san."

As the teacher led Usagi to the Infirmary, her sense of panic lessened. When she entered the office, she saw Chibi-Usa lying on the small cot looking rather dejected but asleep. 'Kami-sama, she's all right.'

Quietly Usagi went over and gently shook the little girl. It was several seconds before Chibi-Usa's eyes opened. She focused her vision on Usagi as if not recognizing her, then a frown crept onto her face and tears started to build in her eyes. 'Gomen Onee-san. I was bad. I shouldn't have fallen asleep in class.'

Usagi was quick to comfort and quipped, "Imouto, did you enjoy your nap?" The girl's only response was to wrap her little arms around Usagi and hug her tightly tears flowing. 'Kami-sama, I'll have to make sure she gets proper rest... Being this sensitive is a big problem.'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa and Rubeus appeared in a rather sparsely furnished room. It had only a large table with six chairs around it. The table and chairs were made of a black crystalline substance; the walls seemed to give off an ambient glow of energy but there was no visible source of light. The ceiling was lost in a multicolored ringed mist that seemed to shift occasionally.

Both predators studied the other carefully for a few seconds trying to size the other one up. Rubeus was the first to sit at the one end of the table. Chibi-Usa examined the chairs and table before sitting at the other end.

"Now where shall we start?" Chibi-Usa asked.

Rubeus was about to respond when a deep voice boomed through the chamber calling out, "RUBEUS!"

Chibi-Usa startled, jumped up, and whirled around to find out where the voice was coming from. Seeing no one, she turned about to demand Rubeus to tell her where the voice originated. She noted he looked slightly ill.

"Excuse me, Your Highness... I have an urgent matter to attend to." With that, Rubeus walked through a nearby mirror and vanished. Chibi-Usa wanted to find out what had spooked him but couldn't push her way through the mirror like he did; she was trapped again.

Then with a squeal of surprise, Chibi-Usa fell backwards as someone pushed their way into the room through the same mirror. She recognized the person as Cooan, the youngest of the Four Sisters. Scrambling to her feet, Chibi-Usa squawked, "You dare to touch royalty!"

Cooan smiled viciously before saying, "You are NOT royalty... You are the Rabbit... You were baka coming here. I remember what your savior, Sailor Moon, did to me so I think it's only fitting that I do the same to you since..."

Chibi-Usa was angered at first by this mere peon addressing her in such a rude manner. Cooan started towards Chibi-Usa but stopped when the child started to laugh. "Sailor Moon my savior? Where've you been, BAKA? There's no Sailor Moon in my time and in this time, she's thicker than a brick."

Cooan didn't like being laughed at and started towards Chibi-Usa again to teach her a lesson when Rubeus returned. "Cooan, what are you doing here?"

"Oh Rubeus-sama... I was just saying hello to the 'Rabbit'."

"Never call her that. She is, after all, Princess Usagi of Crystal Tokyo." Rubeus smiled and then stated coldly, "You have a job to do... Go talk to Beruche. She can fill you in." As Cooan walked out rebuked, Rubeus turned to Chibi-Usa. "Now, Your Highness, shall we get down to the matter of negotiations?"

"Hai..." Chibi-Usa answered and resumed her seat. 'This will be... I must be careful though.'

# # # # #

The only thing keeping Rei's temper in check was the fact that Ami had called the meeting and refused to start it because she said that Usagi had something important to discuss. She wasn't giving any hints to what that something was. Just as the fiery teen was about to stalk back into the room and tell Ami to get on with the meeting regardless, Usagi and Chibi-Usa came up the shrine steps more than an hour late.

This just irritated Rei further. However, she figured it wasn't worth getting into a fight over because it would just delay things further. Huffing slightly, the Shinto priestess pointedly turned and stalked back into the shrine where the others were waiting.

The reason Usagi was late were twofold. One, she had to reassure Chibi-Usa that she didn't do anything wrong by falling asleep in class. It was because she had been up late and hadn't gotten proper rest not because she was trying to be bad. This seemed to cheer her up a little. The second reason, however, was shakier.

Usagi had devised a way to explain to Chibi-Usa what had happened so she had gone to a toy store to buy a few props. Now leading Chibi-Usa by the hand towards the Sailor Senshi meeting, Usagi was practicing in her mind what she was going to say. For her part, Chibi-Usa wasn't sure why they'd gone to the toy store or come to the Hikawa Shrine. She was just happy to be with her big sister.

When they got to the Great Fire Room, Chibi-Usa greeted everybody pleasantly and then promptly sat down beside Usagi who was sitting slightly away from the others; she wanted a good running head start when the yelling started.

"Usagi-chan, what took you so long?" Ami questioned. She really didn't expect a good answer but it was the natural question.

"I had to get some props, Ami-chan," Usagi replied. Ami looked quizzically at her. Rei snorted but remained quiet.

Usagi turned slightly so she was facing Chibi-Usa and after rummaging around in her shopping bag brought out a small stuffed pink bunny with blue eyes and floppy ears.

'I wonder what Onee-san's going to do with that? Is that for me?' Chibi-Usa wondered looking at the bunny. 'It's so kawaii. I hope Onee-san gives it to me.'

"Chibi-Usa-chan, do you remember our talk this morning at Ami-chan's?" Usagi asked. The girl scrunched up her face for a few moments before nodding. "Good girl..." Chibi-Usa beamed happily. "Now can you pretend?" Everyone had puzzled expressions including Chibi-Usa who gave another nod. "Okay, Chibi-Usa-chan, now pretend this is you..." Usagi instructed and sat the pink bunny in front of Chibi-Usa.

"What's going on? Kami-sama, Ami, I thought you said this was important!" Rei declared. Ami shot her a warning look and watched curiously. Minako and Makoto were oblivious to the small outburst as they too watched in fascination. Artemis who had been informed of the situation by Luna earlier could practically hear Minako scream that she wanted that bunny for her own collection.

"Now do you remember when you messed up my room?" Usagi spoke in a tone as if she was reading a bedtime story to the child.

With a nod, Chibi-Usa picked up the pink bunny and said to it, "Bad bunny," while shaking her finger at it. This just caused Minako to giggle at the implication but Usagi was keeping a straight face. It was a very serious matter.

"Now do you remember when I told you I used the Ginzuishou to heal you after you got infected with Dark Energy?" There were gasps from the other girls. Chibi-Usa nodded and Ami shot warning glances to the other girls to keep them quiet but put a warning hand on Rei's arm. Her hot-tempered friend had started to get up.

Rei mumbled something about Usagi being the "Poster child for baka around the world" but stopped when she noticed that Usagi wasn't even paying attention to her. What fun was it to rant and rave when she couldn't get any reaction except an uncharacteristically hostile glare from Ami?

"Well..." Usagi took the pink bunny out of Chibi-Usa's hand and placed it back in the bag. Chibi-Usa frowned slightly. "The Ginzuishou split you into two... A good one..." With that, Usagi pulled out a small white bunny. "And a very bad one." Usagi pulled out a small black bunny. "You are the white bunny... You have all the good behavior in you... The other you, the black bunny, has all the naughty behavior in it. Do you understand?"

There was a hushed silence for a few moments as Chibi-Usa glanced back and forth between the two stuffed toy bunnies considering what Usagi had said. She reached into the bag and pulled out the pink one. Another moment passed as she seemed to be having a conversation with herself. Usagi was starting to think that Chibi-Usa was more interested in the bunnies as playthings rather than her explanation when Chibi-Usa gave a broad smile and beamed, "Hai! I get it... You're like my mommy now."

"Nani?" Usagi croaked out, "Like your mommy?" The other girls and cats were equally as shocked and confused as Usagi was.

"Hai! You gave me a new sister I can play with! But I don't get one thing, Usagi-chan?"

"Nani..." Usagi squeaked out. She couldn't believe it! This Chibi-Usa wanted to play with the other one?

"Why did you say you were sorry for giving me a new sister?"

Before Usagi could answer, Rei burst up from her position and shouted, "Of all the moronic, BAKA, ODANGO ATAMA, dense things to do!"

Unseen by anyone, Chibi-Usa's lower lip began to tremble; she sniffled slightly, 'Why is Rei picking on Onee-san? She did something really good for me. Rei shouldn't be mad at her.'

"Rei-chan, I didn't think..." Usagi started.

"You're right, Usagi. You DON'T THINK... You NEVER DO! It's no wonder that Mamoru hate's you... YOU'RE SO DENSE!" Usagi just sat there stoic. Inside, she knew she deserved every word of her friend's ranting for putting the little girl through this.

Just then, everyone's attention was drawn by a wail that Chibi-Usa put out. It started out softly enough but eventually it grew to a proportion that even Usagi couldn't match. The pigtailed blonde reached over and pulled the crying child into a hug.

"And what's your problem?" Rei yelled at Chibi-Usa. This drew harsh looks from the others and cries of "Rei-chan!"

This just caused Chibi-Usa to cry harder. "Rei-chan, why are you being so mean to my onee-san?" she choked out. "She did something really nice for me and you're being really mean!"

"YOUR ONEE-SAN?" Rei couldn't believe it. "I think I'm gonna be sick!"

"Onee-san was just trying to help me be good... It isn't her fault that I was bad," she sobbed out.

"Gomen nasai, Chibi-Usa-san. I didn't mean to hurt you," Usagi bowed her head deeply and tried her apology again.

Chibi-Usa brought down the volume of her wail but was still crying and clinging to Usagi when she argued, "But Onee-san... Why are you saying you're sorry to me? I don't understand. You didn't do anything wrong. I love you."

Rei made a gagging sound. "I don't believe it. Usagi, you've done some baka things before but this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen."

Chibi-Usa looked up at Usagi who still had her head bowed in shame. She didn't understand why Usagi wouldn't defend herself against Rei. 'I have to help you, Onee-san. It's not right for Rei to be so mean to you.' She gathered her courage. "YOU LEAVE ONEE-SAN ALONE!" Chibi-Usa yelled. She let go of Usagi and whirled around to stand in front of fiery brunette. "Onee-san isn't dumb. She's very smart and she loves me! Why are you picking on her?"

# # # # #

Rubeus sat across the table from Chibi-Usa who was lazily reclined on a crystal chair, feet propped up on the table and eyes half closed. He licked his lips slightly before saying, "So, Your Highness, you would like me to lend you one of the Sisters so you can get a little revenge and cause some general mayhem..."

"Hai," Chibi-Usa replied. To the casual observer, she appeared to be half-asleep but, in reality, she was paying very close attention to what her adversary was saying. 'It looks like he's finally figured it out.'

'Why am I putting up with this brat's insolence?' Rubeus had been playing these children's games long enough. It was time to cut to the chase. "And what do I get in return?" he demanded.

"The Ginzuishou," Chibi-Usa stated softly.

The words echoed around the chamber for several seconds as Rubeus sat quietly mull over this new development. 'Hmmm... If she really does know where the Ginzuishou is, then I can deliver both it and her to Wiseman and be rid of this primitive backwater...'

As an extra incentive, Chibi-Usa offered, "I also want to torture one of my tormentors to death... I'm quite sure you would like to see that." 'That baka! I'll get 'Chibi-Usa' to tell me where the Ginzuishou is and then I'll kill her slowly. I'll have the Ginzuishou for my own... and then...'

"What's to keep me from simply torturing the information out of you... or ripping the memories out?" Rubeus shivered slightly in anticipation but fought the urge. 'If those baka Sisters could do anything... Maybe I can use this opportunity to gain some power from Prince Diamondo.'

"'Cause, my dear Rubeus, I know WHO has it... not WHERE she has it. I've been looking for it ever since I came back to this backward hellhole and haven't found it yet. What's to say that grabbing her would be easy... The Sailor Senshi always seem to be around to mess up your plans," she smirked.

She'd definitely hit a nerve as Rubeus leapt to his feet and snarled, "Never doubt my power! Those incompetent Sisters are to blame..."

"I never doubted your power for a second... I'm just saying that so far you haven't had much luck that's all..." Chibi-Usa gazed at Rubeus who sat back down and composed himself. 'The baka! So easy to control...'

'Hai... She's got a point. I can't really lose. Even if she fails, I can hand her over to Wiseman. That might be enough to save me... In the meantime, I can continue to have the other Sisters try to take over Crystal Points.' Rubeus gave a short bark of laughter before saying, "Then we have a deal, Your Highness."

Chibi-Usa just smiled evilly and nodded her agreement. 'The Ginzuishou will be mine... and 'Chibi-Usa' will suffer.'

# # # # #

Chapter 9 "Beruche"

The silence that followed Chibi-Usa's outburst was deafening. Hino Rei stood there with her mouth opening and closing but no sound escaping. It was a very funny sight except that no one was laughing.

Chibi-Usa speared her feet in a defiant stance, placing her hands on her hips and stated with all the authority and courage she could muster. "Rei-chan, say you're sorry to Onee-san... You shouldn't be so mean to her."

Rei's face twisted into an angry snarl as she finally found her voice and shouted, "'Me say I'M sorry'? I'm not the one who threw water-balloons or went sneaking through Usagi's personal belongings. You called her 'BAKA ODANGO ATAMA' just as much, if not more than I did, so why should I apologize... I'm not the one that's been bad!"

That did it. Chibi-Usa's posture slumped, her courage deserted her. Her bottom lip began to quiver as she lowered her head. 'Why did you have to say that, Rei? Onee-san will be mad at me again,' Chibi-Usa knew as she flushed with embarrassment.

"Your Onee-san, although I don't know why you'd ever want to be even around her, took the person you were and split you like an apple!" Rei shrugged off the placating hand from Ami. "AND YOU TELL ME TO APOLOGIZE!"

Usagi who'd raised her head in astonishment at her friend's outburst had immediately seen the signs. She rushed over, scooped Chibi-Usa up in one arm while placing her hand over Chibi-Usa's mouth, and rushed from the room. Ami was next to follow Usagi out but turned towards the bathroom. She knew what had happened.

Minako shared a look with Makoto. They weren't entirely sure what was going on. Getting up, they glared at Rei who had stubbornly crossed her arms looking in the other direction. They shared another look before heading off to see what was happening.

# # # # #

Ami brought out a small bowl filled with warm water and a washcloth. Usagi smiled her thanks to her friend and took them. She was speaking in quiet soothing tones to Chibi-Usa who had become sick and now was looking rather miserable. Usagi then proceeded to clean up the girl's face and neck.

"It's okay... here," Usagi said reassuringly and handed her a Kleenex. The child blew her nose and sniffled a bit. Standing up, Usagi suggested, "Come on, Imouto. Let's get you inside, and properly cleaned up, okay?" A small nod.

Taking Chibi-Usa's hand, Usagi led her off towards the bathroom. Ami heard the noise of the others coming out. When she saw that Rei wasn't among them, she gave a sigh.

"Minna-san, I think I'll go have a little chat with Rei..." Makoto decided and walked back to the Great Fire Room.

# # # # #

Kino Makoto saw Rei meditating in front of the Great Fire eyes closed concentrating on something. She observed her friend for a few moments before speaking, "Rei-chan... That wasn't very nice. I can see you being upset with Usagi but to yell at Chibi-Usa like that..."

"THAT Chibi-Usa thought it was great, Makoto!" Rei stated stubbornly.

"THAT Chibi-Usa became so stressed out because of you that she threw up... I don't think that makes you feel happy, Rei... There are some things you just don't do."

The priestess lowered her head and heaved a sigh. "I know, Makoto... I just... I wish that Usagi would act more responsible..." 'I know that isn't Makoto's point... Maybe I shouldn't have snapped at Chibi-Usa... She's just a child.'

"More responsible?" Makoto asked. "Rei, Usagi made a choice... She acted the way she thought she should. Sure at first it was because she was angry but I really think that she meant well."

Rei remained silent for several seconds before saying, almost to herself, "I... I just can't see Usagi being this baka."

Makoto sighed slightly, "Rei-chan..." She waited until her friend was looking directly at her. "Usagi isn't baka. She may occasionally do dumb things but she means well and tries the best way she knows how. Look how she's taking care of Chibi-Usa now." She paused. "Usagi-chan is our friend and our leader. What you did to her might have been a little overbearing but certainly normal... But I really think you need to talk to Chibi-Usa. She's a seriously upset little girl and it's all because of you." With that, Makoto left the room quietly to let Rei think about what the tall brunette had said.

# # # # #

Usagi heard a knock on the bathroom door and looked up to see Rei tentatively looking at her. Usagi regarded her sternly. Chibi-Usa moved a little way in front of her cousin. Rei heaved a sigh. The little girl who she'd upset was still going to defend her onee-san from the big bad Rei.

Rei asked softly, "Can... Can I talk to Chibi-Usa alone?" The raven-haired teen winced when she saw the panic in the young girl's eyes.

Usagi knew what her friend was trying to do. She placed a hand on Chibi-Usa's shoulder and asked, "Honey, do you want to talk to Rei-chan alone?"

Chibi-Usa looked up at Usagi for reassurance. "Will you be all right, Onee-san?" Her voice was a little scratchy and her big red eyes were slightly puffy from her crying.

"You won't yell at her?" It was more of an order than a question. Usagi looked directly at Rei who flinched away from her look. Rei shook her head no. "Hai, Imouto, I'll be all right."

Chibi-Usa, reassured, gave the teen a quick hug before holding out her hand tentatively towards the priestess. Rei hesitated for the briefest moment before taking the offered hand and slowly led the little girl back to the Great Fire Room. Sitting down, the shrine priestess indicated that Chibi-Usa should do the same.

"Rei-chan, why do you hate Onee-san?" Chibi-Usa finally asked softly.

The question cut like a knife into the priestess, she nearly shouted out, "I don't hate Usagi..." 'Kami-sama, why am I yelling at her again? Calm down.'

"But then why did you say all those mean things?"

Rei sat silently for a short time collecting her thoughts before saying, "Chibi-Usa-chan... Usagi shouldn't have used the Ginzuishou on you." Rei continued on before Chibi-Usa could ask the obvious question, "She should have trusted her friends to help her but she didn't and that hurt me."

The child regarded the teen puzzled for a moment before answering, "I don't get it... Rei-san, why are you mad at me for being good?"

"Chibi-Usa-chan... I'm not mad at you for being good. I was very upset with Usagi and when you started to defend her, I became very upset with you. That was wrong... I shouldn't have yelled at you."

'I think she's saying she's sorry... Onee-san seems to still be her friend. She said that Rei was only mad at her and that Rei probably wasn't really mad at me.' Chibi-Usa looked at Rei for several seconds before asking, "Rei-chan, are we still friends?"

Rei didn't really want to admit that she was sorry for upsetting the little girl but as the silence continued, she could tell that Chibi-Usa was getting nervous, "Hai..." Rei finally said softly, "We're still friends."

# # # # #

Hearing footsteps, the others looked up to see Chibi-Usa and Rei walk out holding hands. The little girl had the faintest hint of a smile on her face and it broadened when she saw Usagi. As they came closer, Chibi-Usa practically shouted, "Onee-san... Rei-chan likes me!" Makoto winked to Rei unseen by the others.

"That's great, Imouto..." 'Arigato Rei.'

"Usagi, can I talk to you?" Rei asked politely.

"Hai..." Getting up, Usagi followed her friend off away from the others and into her room before Rei questioned, "Usagi, what's got into you? Ami told you that it would probably leave her system..."

"Rei-chan, you don't know what I went through!" Usagi started to whine but caught herself, "I was so tired of having my room ripped apart by her looking for the Ginzuishou. If you remember correctly, you're one of the ones who told me not to say anything about it."

Rei ducked her head slightly. "Usagi... I just..." she trailed off she wasn't really sure how to explain why she was irritated with Usagi.

"I have to go home now... Listen, I made a choice and I have to live with the consequences. I truly love that little girl and I know what I did to her was wrong but..." Usagi sighed. "Rei-chan, I hope you can understand." She turned and after walking back to Chibi-Usa, she took her hand and led her towards home.

Rei was left mulling over what had just been said. 'Gomen nasai, Usagi-chan...'

# # # # #

"Beruche, you will accompany Princess Usagi. You're under her orders," Rubeus commanded the following day. "Now, Your Highness, would you please describe your plan to me?"

Chibi-Usa now dressed in a dress suited more in her opinion to her station in life glanced at Rubeus. "What about the power?"

"The plan first, Your Highness... I would not wish to expend power unnecessarily," Rubeus argued calmly. 'I'll give her enough power so she can pretend to be taking shots at the Sailor Senshi when they show up... I'll give the ability to levitate also. That should satisfy the little brat.'

Chibi-Usa grumbled something acidic before saying, "Hai, my dear Rubeus... 'Chibi-Usa' goes to school... Beruche will pretend to be a Public Health Nurse and I'll be her 'helper'... Her Droid will catch 'Chibi-Usa' and we'll get her to tell us where the Ginzuishou is."

Beruche remained quiet. 'What's Rubeus doing dealing with this baka rugrat? Why don't we just give her to Wiseman?' She was having serious doubts about the game her leader was playing. 'He wouldn't be pleased to know that Rubeus is playing with the Rabbit.'

'Hmm... It sounds like it might work...' Rubeus decided, 'If nothing else, this can be a test of her loyalty.' With that, he made his decision and agreed, "That sounds like an excellent plan, Your Highness... I'll start the power infusion immediately."

Chibi-Usa just smiled. 'I'll become strong 'Chibi-Usa'! I'll become strong and crush your family before your eyes... I'll make it easy... Shingo will die quickly, the others though...' Beruche flinched as Chibi-Usa started to chuckle; it sounded awfully malevolent.

# # # # #

"How did you sleep last night, Usagi-chan?" Ami questioned. They were outside in the schoolyard eating lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day. The three friends were taking this opportunity to discuss the events that had occurred over recent days.

"Excellently, if you don't mind being throttled, Ami-chan," Usagi grouched. "When we got back from the Shrine, I had to keep her distracted so she wouldn't say anything about it to Mom. Chibi-Usa still thinks it's a neat idea having a sister and she asked when she could meet her."

Makoto snorted, "We better find the evil one and quick before Rei gives the good one ulcers..."

"Yeah, I know, Mako-chan... Chibi-Usa's really sensitive. Like I said, I slept excellently. She just had this rather protective clamp around my neck all night long... She kept cutting off my air. She's afraid I'm going to leave her," Usagi sighed. "I'm surprised you guys aren't mad at me."

"Well... Usagi-chan, I think you were trying to do something nice. You also were being a bit selfish too." Makoto added, "By the way, have you guys seen that Public Health Nurse crawling around?"

Ami and Usagi looked blankly at Makoto for several seconds, "Iie..."

"Yeah, she gives me the creeps. There was this..." Makoto trailed off suddenly her eyes grew wide, "It couldn't be."

"Nani?" Usagi breathed, "Come on, what does she have?"

"There was this little kid with her... Now why would a little kid be with a Public Health Nurse?"

Hearing this, Ami flicked out her minicomputer and entered a few commands. Usagi was looking between the two of them before saying, "You don't think it could be the evil one, ne?"

"I dunno... but I thought there was something odd about her. She kept eyeing me intently like she knew me or something."

"These readings indicate that there's a small but highly concentrated Dark Energy source within one hundred meters of our location." Ami stated quietly, "The vector... It's definitely inside the school administration building and it corresponds with the energy signature I received from the evil Chibi-Usa who obviously attacked me before."

"What are we going to do?" Usagi questioned, "I mean if we transform and fight here, that'll draw a lot of people. It'll look funny with us missing with the Sailor Senshi around."

Makoto blinked at the blonde in surprise. "Usagi's right... and if we don't do anything, who knows what's going to happen?"

"What do we have next period?" Ami queried.

"Ami-chan, you and I have history..." Usagi glanced over at her ponytailed who was rummaging around in her school bag.

"I've got a study period. We have a sub today but the regular sensei didn't leave a study plan."

"We have to do something," Usagi stated again but before they could come up with an effective plan, the bell rang forcing them back to class.

# # # # #

A little later, Beruche in her nurse's disguise regarded Chibi-Usa who pointed to Usagi. They were in Haruna-sensei's classroom now. Having finally received the okay from Her Highness to call the Droid, Beruche went about her task to not be conspicuous until she got closer to Usagi. 'I've got you now, 'Chibi-Usa',' Chibi-Usa thought.

Usagi spotted the two entering the classroom and pushed the panic button on her communicator. It would let Makoto know that something was definitely going on. It would also let the others know that something was up.

Just as Beruche was four desks away from Usagi, the school's fire alarm went off. Everyone in the room jumped up immediately and started heading for the exits. Beruche totally surprised was nearly trampled by the chaos that ensued. Chibi-Usa was swept out of the classroom by the mob of students taking advantage of the opportunity to get out of class.

In the confusion, Usagi and Ami quickly managed to get away from the crowd. Making sure that no one could see them, they transformed and soon confronted a stunned Beruche who had finally gotten her footing. "Posing as a nurse is wrong, for you do not represent health and happiness. I am the Pretty Sailor-suited Senshi, SAILOR MOON! In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" Sailor Moon declared.

"Where'd 'Chibi-Usa' GO?" Chibi-Usa demanded, "Get rid of these pests and then start looking for that BAKA."

Beruche wasn't eager to fight Sailor Moon alone so she called upon her Droid, "Droid Doctorella! Come forth!"

Droid Doctorella stood somewhere around seven feet tall, scarecrow thin, and wearing a lab coat. A stethoscope hung around its neck and when it smiled, its teeth were made of hypodermic needles.

"Take care of these patients," Beruche commanded and then teleported with Chibi-Usa outside to search for Usagi.

"Hai, Beruche-sama." The Droid turned and immediately attacked Sailor Mercury.

"Shabon spr..." Sailor Mercury started but was cut short when Doctorella flung a roll of tension bandages at her. It expanded and trapped Sailor Mercury before it began to squeeze her mercilessly.

"Sailor Mercury!" Sailor Moon stated horrified.

"Let me get straight to the point!" Doctorella shouted and pinned Sailor Moon to the wall with several long hypodermic needles. Sailor Moon began to struggle as the Droid advanced towards her with an evil smile on its face, "Your symptoms require surgery to correct. Now let's get right to the 'heart' of the matter, ne?" With that, Doctorella pulled out a large scalpel.

Sailor Moon's eyes grew large as she started to panic. 'Where the heck is Jupiter?'

As if that was her cue, Sailor Jupiter's voice boomed out, "SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!" The flying disc of energy hit the surprised Droid fully in its back and slammed it into the wall. The force of the impact jostled Sailor Moon loose and flung her to the floor.

"Ah, another patient to take care of..." Doctorella hissed out. It stalked towards Sailor Moon who was desperately trying to cut the nearly suffocating Mercury free. The demure Senshi was starting to turn the same color as her hair. That's when Tuxedo Kamen made his entrance.

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama!" cried Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter.

"Doctors are here to help people, not hurt them. They should not practice bad medicine!"

"I'll show you 'bad medicine', BAKA!" the Droid howled while flinging its stethoscope like a whip. Tuxedo Kamen leapt out of the way and proceeded to clobber the Droid with his extendible cane.

"Sailor Moon NOW!" Tuxedo Kamen shouted.

"Hai! MOON PRINCESS HALATION!" Sailor Moon shouted and that was the end of the Droid. Turning to Mercury who struggled to gain her breath back after the tension bandage disappeared, Sailor Moon asked, "Mercury-chan, will you be okay?" Seeing Mercury's nod, Sailor Moon turned to Jupiter. "Let's go find that spore and teach her a lesson!"

With that, both Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter sprinted out of the school and out the doorway.

# # # # #

"Damn!" Chibi-Usa cursed as she saw Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter emerge from the schoolgrounds, "Strategic retreat!"

Beruche wasn't pleased. "Some leader she is. Rubeus wouldn't have run away," she muttered. With that, she and her 'leader' for this little trip teleported away.

# # # # #

"You failed..." Rubeus sneered out.

"Those baka Sailor Senshi showed up... How'd they know where we were gonna be?" Chibi-Usa wondered and then sent an accusatory glance at Beruche who was too busy looking at a mirror checking her make-up to notice.

"Your Highness, you DID provide a distraction for us though... for one of our other projects," Rubeus stated. 'Cooan actually succeeded at something. Now as long as none of the Sailor Senshi find out that Crystal Point will be ours!'

# # # # #

Chapter 10 "Petz"

"But Onee-san!" Chibi-Usa protested. She was holding Usagi's hand heading home from school.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, I said iie," Usagi stated firmly. 'Jeez... I can't take her to the meeting. Ami says she's come up with a plan...' Usagi, for her part, was still shaken by the fact that the evil Chibi-Usa had gone after her at school. 'People could have gotten really hurt... We have to get her and stop her quickly before she does something even worse like going after Mom, Dad, or even Shingo!'

"But Onee-san, I want to stay with you!" the child pleaded. "Rei-chan might yell at you again." 'I can't let her be mean to you like that no matter what she does to me.'

Usagi stopped dead in her tracks and glared at Chibi-Usa. The little girl shrunk backwards and whimpered slightly. Usagi was finding it hard to cope with this little girl who was good all the time. Yes, she loved the child with all her heart but Usagi was starting to feel a little stifled.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, I said you can't come to the Shrine... I'll drop you off at Mamoru's and come back as soon as I can," Usagi stated firmly again. 'Come on why are you being so... stubborn. Iie, that isn't fair. She's really concerned about me... Now I know what Mom feels like sometimes.'

Chibi-Usa was about to comply but decided to give it one more shot. 'I don't know why Onee-san's trying to get rid of me. I mean it isn't like I was bad or anything...' "But Onee..."

"Enough!" Usagi barked out, "You're not coming and I don't want to hear any more argument about it." Usagi saw the tears start to form and immediately picked Chibi-Usa up. 'This is so difficult. At least, she isn't asking to meet her new sister. I'm starting to miss the old Chibi-Usa.'

Usagi started to walk again while she said, "Gomen, Imouto... I've had a really rough day. I love you very much and I'm not trying to get rid of you. Rei-chan won't be mean to me." 'I hope.' "I promise I'll be back as soon as I can. Anyway, you like staying with Mamoru-kun and he likes to spend time with you."

If Usagi didn't know any better, she'd swear that Chibi-Usa was sulking. "Now are you going to be good?" Chibi-Usa nodded sullenly. "That's a good girl." Usagi gave her a big hug and turned into Mamoru's place.

# # # # #

"Gomen, I'm late," Usagi apologized, "I had a hard time getting Chibi-Usa to go to Mamoru's."

Rei remained silent and uncharacteristically didn't say anything about Usagi's tardiness. Turning to Ami, she inquired, "So, Ami, the evil one was prowling around your school? Anybody hurt?"

"Iie... the appearance of the Sailor Senshi caused quite a stir though."

"What I want to know is what they were after..." Makoto said vehemently,

Minako nodded her agreement and interjected, "Yeah, it's strange for the enemy to go after a junior high school."

"Hai... but we have a bigger problem: what are we going to do with the evil Chibi-Usa after we catch her?" Ami waited to see if anyone had come up with an idea. Her plan entailed a certain risk. After a minute of silence, she suggested, "I was thinking that if Usagi used the Ginzuishou to split them, couldn't she use the Ginzuishou to merge them?"

Makoto chimed in, "Yeah but how do we keep the evil one still... We're not even sure that'd work."

"How 'bout one of my ofuda?" Rei suggested. "I'd have to modify a few of them. I think a normal one would be too powerful and inflict a lot of pain. It might even kill the evil one."

Usagi gasped, "I don't want to kill her... and I don't know what it would do to the good Chibi-Usa. She might die too. How long will it take for you to modify your ofuda, Rei-chan?"

Rei carefully thought about this for a few moments before saying, "Maybe two, three days... It's hard to say. I won't be able to make a lot of them so we'll only get one or two shots at this."

"So we capture the evil one, stick an ofuda on her, and then use the Ginzuishou to merge her with the good one..." Minako summed up, "But that just leaves the question of what do we do if that doesn't work?"

There was general silence from the gathered girls before Usagi indicated, "Minna-san, I should go..." Rei started to scowl but Usagi hurried on with her explanation, "I left Chibi-Usa at Mamoru's... I would've taken her home but with the evil one lurking around, Mamoru would be in the best position to protect the good one if it came down to it."

'Odango Atama actually had a good idea!' The shocked expression that crossed the priestess' face was priceless; she did a reprise of her fish routine again... speechless.

Usagi got up and started for the stairs before she came back and asked, "Rei-chan, would you please look after Chibi-Usa for the afternoon tomorrow? I'd really like to spend the afternoon at the arcade or mall-trolling."

'Well... I do feel guilty for yelling at Chibi-Usa... and a little guilty for yelling at Usagi...' "Hai," Rei agreed, "Drop by about one... I have a few errands to do in the morning since there's no school tomorrow."

"Arigato, Rei-chan!" Usagi smiled before leaving to get Chibi-Usa.

# # # # #

"Onee-san!" Chibi-Usa cried joyfully.

"See, Imouto, I didn't take that long, now did I?" Usagi asked. The girl shook her head. "Arigato, Mamoru-kun."

"Hai! Arigato Mamoru-kun. Ja ne!" Chibi-Usa waved good-bye then. Taking Usagi's hand, Chibi-Usa led her down the hallway. "We don't want Ikuko-mama mad at us for being late for supper... Onee-san?"

"Hmmm."

"Mamoru-kun was acting really funny..." Seeing Usagi's questioning look, Chibi-Usa continued, "He kept calling me Usako and..."

The teen stopped dead in her tracks. Chibi-Usa looked tentatively up at her. 'I hope Onee-san isn't going to yell at me again.' Surprisingly, Usagi let go of Chibi-Usa's hand and stalked back down the hall towards Mamoru's door. She knocked solidly and waited for the door to be opened; Chibi-Usa couldn't hear what they were saying and didn't try to but Usagi seemed angry about something. After a little bit, Usagi came back, took Chibi-Usa's hand, and started down the hall again without uttering a word. 'Onee-san still looks mad but not at me.'

'Baka!' Usagi thought, 'Calling a little kid Usako... My special name from him!'

# # # # #

It was two hours after Chibi-Usa left with Usagi that Mamoru heard another knock on his door. Opening it, he frowned to see that Chibi-Usa was back and wearing a dress that just didn't sit well with him.

"Mamo-chan... I'm glad to see that my boyfriend got dressed up and waited just for me."

The sharp tongue lashing that Usagi had given Mamoru came speeding to the forefront of his mind. He stood there a moment before replying, "Chibi-Usa-chan..." Chibi-Usa growled. "I can't be your boyfriend. It isn't right... Now I'll take you home. I want to speak with Usagi about these dresses she's buying you."

"MY NAME'S USAGI!" Chibi-Usa roared.

"Iie, it's Chibi-Usa, Chibi-Usa-chan. You're the smaller version of Usagi. Even though your name's the same as hers, she's older than you and it shows her proper respect. I don't take kindly to you humiliating Usagi. She's a wonderful girl and you should be proud to be bound by the same name. She's always treated you kindly... especially this week."

"That BAKA ODANGO ATAMA?" Chibi-Usa screeched. "Mamo-chan, you're not her boyfriend so you can be mine."

"Iie, it is very inappropriate. You dishonor me by this behavior, Chibi-Usa. If you keep this up, I'll tell Usagi you aren't allowed to see me anymore... Now come... I'll take you home."

"Oh no you don't!" Chibi-Usa yelled and ran off down the hallway. 'Baka 'Chibi-Usa' stealing my Luna-P! She'll pay!' She stormed out the front door and looked at Beruche. "Take us back to the UFO... I have planning to do."

'Why you insolent child!' Beruche thought but didn't act on it. For now, this child was under Rubeus' "protection". Grumbling slightly, she teleported away with the abrasive child.

# # # # #

Walking over to his phone, Mamoru dialed the Tsukino household and waited. After only a couple rings, it was answered by Usagi who was surprised to hear Mamoru's voice; he never called there. After a brief conversation, where he told her about what had just happened and determined that she would not have bought those dresses for Chibi-Usa.

Mamoru finished off with, "Usagi-san, you'll have to tell Chibi-Usa that she can't see me anymore."

"Are you sure, Mamoru-kun?" Usagi asked. 'Got to play along...'

"Iie, she can't."

"What if she apologizes to me?"

"Hai, but only if she apologizes to you and improves her behavior."

"She shouldn't be going to your place without someone dropping her off if she comes by again, would you please let me or one of the girls know?"

"Hai, if she comes by again, I'll call. Ja."

"Ja ne." Usagi hung up the phone and then called the others on her communicator. She had news to report.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa opened her eyes. The room was dark except for the streetlights that were streaking in through the window. She noticed she was alone in the bed. Glancing around, she saw Usagi sitting near the window staring out into the night looking worried.

'I don't want to get into trouble but... Onee-san looks so sad,' Chibi-Usa thought. They had come home and when it was time for bed, Usagi had tucked Chibi-Usa in said goodnight and then turned out the lights without reading her a story. 'I don't think Onee-san's mad at me but she's... scared about something. What could scare Onee-san?'

Chibi-Usa laid there quietly for a while longer reasoning out what she should do. Finally, the concern for her big sister and the desire to try to cheer her up won out over any thought of being in trouble for not being asleep. Tentatively, she crawled out of bed and padded over to where her cousin was sitting with her legs tucked under her, chin resting on her hands that were placed on top of the windowsill.

"Imouto..." Usagi said softly when she detected the little girl beside her, "You shouldn't be up this late."

"Onee-san, why are you sad?"

Usagi gave a soft smile and pulled Chibi-Usa onto her lap. Wrapping her arms around the little girl, Usagi answered, "I'm just thinking, Imouto... I'm thinking about what the 'bad' Chibi-Usa might do and I'm thinking about Mamoru-kun."

"Can... Can I meet the other Chibi-Usa?" Chibi-Usa asked softly. She felt Usagi's warmth in the hug and laid her head back against Usagi's shoulder while closing her eyes. 'Mommy would let me fall asleep on her lap if I had a bad dream... You'll be a great mommy...' Chibi-Usa gave a small smile at the thought.

"Gomen Imouto, I can't let you meet the other Chibi-Usa... She's a very naughty girl and is still doing bad things..."

"Then she needs a hug," Chibi-Usa asserted.

Usagi smirked slightly, 'What she needs is her other half.' "If I can make sure she doesn't hurt you, I might let you see her."

"Really?" a nod, "Onee-san, why doesn't Mamoru-kun want to be your boyfriend?" Chibi-Usa asked even more softly. 'I tried to tell him how nice you are but he acted so funny...' It was obvious to Usagi the little girl was falling asleep again.

"Because... because he doesn't love me..." Usagi whispered softly.

As a final parting before sleep overtook the little girl, Chibi-Usa whispered, "I love you, Onee-san."

Usagi felt some tears well up in her eyes. 'What have I done? What have I done?'

# # # # #

The next day, just after lunch found Usagi re-counting her allowance for the week. 'I can hardly wait! Arcade here I come!' Usagi beamed happily, 'Hmmm... Now how am I going to sell this to Chibi-Usa?'

"Onee-san, whatcha doing?" Chibi-Usa asked hesitantly. 'I think Onee-san isn't sad now... I helped Onee-san!' That thought brought a smile to her face.

Usagi regarded the strawberry-blonde who was watching her carefully. "I'm counting my allowance, Chibi-Usa-chan."

"Are you going to save it?"

"Iie."

"But..." Chibi-Usa trailed off and flushed slightly. 'I'm being a nosy person...'

'Time to drop the bombshell...' "Imouto, would you like to go to Rei's?" Usagi saw the hesitation in girl's face. "Imouto... Rei-chan said she wanted to watch you this afternoon... You know I think she's trying to apologize for yelling at you." Usagi gave a wink.

"But Rei-chan already said she was sorry... Let's go to the park and you can read me a story."

"I have a better idea. Why don't you go to Rei's and help her around the Shrine for the afternoon and, if you're extra good for Rei-chan, I'll take you to the park after supper and we can get some ice cream."

Chibi-Usa squirmed a little bit. She'd really like to go to the park with Usagi and get some ice cream but she was scared. "W-What if Rei-chan yells at me?"

"Imouto, I'm sure she won't yell at you. You've been a very good little girl for Ami-chan and I know you don't do bad things so, I think you will be extra good for Rei-chan. I want her to be as proud of you as I am."

Chibi-Usa considered this for several seconds. 'Rei said she's my friend. I should go too because I gave Onee-san such a hard time yesterday...' "Hai, Onee-san."

Usagi smiled. 'Now why doesn't that work on Shingo?'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa peered through the window of the Crown Arcade. 'There you are, 'Chibi-Usa'!' She couldn't believe her luck. She'd guessed that with school out today that her nemesis would be at either the arcade or the mall. She had come to the arcade first and spotted her there.

"Is your Droid ready?" Chibi-Usa asked Petz.

"Hai..." Petz, eldest of the Four Sisters, replied. 'You arrogant imp. Beruche was such a wimp to put up with you... If Rubeus didn't insist that you be treated properly or Wiseman might be angry, I'd finish you myself.'

Chibi-Usa rubbed her hands expectantly together. She was about to tell Petz to get on with it when she spotted the familiar blond top and red bow of Aino Minako heading in their direction. Chibi-Usa scrambled around and hid the best she could. Petz disguised didn't move but briefly considered calling out to the blonde that the little spore seemed so afraid of and pointing out the bothersome pest.

# # # # #

"Hi, Usagi-chan!" Minako chirped out, "So you convinced Chibi-Usa to stay with Rei?"

"Hai..." Usagi said, "Owwww! I died again!" Usagi heard a noise and turned to her blond friend. "Ah... Minako-chan, why is your purse moving and making noise?"

Minako's eyes opened wide; she flipped the top of the purse open. As soon as it was unlatched, the very irritated face of Artemis popped up and he glared at his charge.

"Mina... You stuffed me in here when you were packing away your wallet!" Artemis hissed out. "That was the most uncomfortable position..." he trailed off and glanced at the door.

"Minako, I need to talk to you."

"But Artemis..." she started to protest at first but then she complied and headed towards the restroom.

Usagi turned back to start a new game and was soon oblivious to her fate as Petz walked toward her followed by a grinning Chibi-Usa. 'This time, 'Chibi-Usa', there won't be a fire drill to save you.'

# # # # #

What happened next was a real shock. Usagi felt herself grabbed by the arms and lifted up into the air. The other customers screamed and fled for their lives clearing out the arcade in record time.

"NA... NANI? What's going on?"

"Ah 'Chibi-Usa'!" Chibi-Usa crowed as the Droid turned her around, "Don't you know that you're baka enough as it is?"

The teen caught sight of the Droid as a reflection in one of the circular mirrors around the arcade. It was bulky, angular in nature. Its large eye looked like a video screen. It had antennae that looked suspiciously like joysticks. A large wide but thin mouth seemed to make a clacking sound intermittently.

Struggling, Usagi managed to hide pushing the 'panic button' on her Sailor Senshi communicator while trying vainly to get out of the Droid's grasp. "Why do you call me 'Chibi-Usa'? And what do you want?" Usagi was playing the part of a panicked civilian. She'd had plenty of practice as Sailor Moon so it wasn't much of a stretch. 'I've got to give the others time...'

"Because, CHIBI-USA-CHAN," Chibi-Usa gloated, "It's not a name befitting me... I'm Princess Usagi of Crystal Tokyo, heir to the Throne. I'm a much smarter and prettier woman than you and... 'Sides, you're just a little baka crybaby commoner. That is why I call you 'Chibi-Usa'. You may, for your short life, call me 'Your Highness'." Chibi-Usa floated up so she was at eye level with her captive. "And what I want... The Ginzuishou!"

"But Chibi-Usa..." Usagi started but stopped as a scowl crossed over the girl's face.

"You dare talk back to royalty!" Suddenly, Chibi-Usa floated back a bit and cupped both hands together before making a throwing motion. Multiple small balls of energy sprang forth impacting Usagi who cried out in pain. "I'm going to kill you, 'Chibi-Usa'!" Chibi-Usa reveled, "Very slowly... Now where's the..."

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!" Sailor Venus' glowing chain sped forward and wrapped itself around levitating child. Venus gave a mighty yank and the still floating child came speeding towards her. Suddenly, there was a figure who appeared in front of Venus but off to one side. It was Petz; she caught Chibi-Usa and then before teleporting away shouted, "Droid Video-Itus, finish off the bothersome Senshi and then finish off the human as well."

"Hai Petz-sama!" With that, it flung Usagi off to the side and turned to face Sailor Venus who for her part was just standing there mouth open shocked at what one of those Four Sisters had done.

# # # # #

Usagi landed roughly on her butt but managed to recover quickly. She heard a sound something like a machine-gun. Peeking over the game that she had landed behind, she saw the Droid was spitting oversized tokens at Sailor Venus who was hopping around wildly trying to avoid them.

"Wow!" Usagi exclaimed as she saw the game she was behind, "I didn't know they had this one in... I wonder if I have any tokens left?"

"Sailor Moon, where are you?" Venus barked, "Venus Crescent BEAM!" The light lance shot out and hit the Droid squarely. It staggered back but didn't fall over.

"Hai!" Making sure that she was out of the security camera's view and no one was hiding, Usagi transformed into Sailor Moon and hopped up on nearby counter. "Video games are for the enjoyment of youth, not to spoil their fun! I am the Pretty Sailor-suited Senshi, SAILOR MOON! In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" The Droid turned and spat several of its tokens at Sailor Moon who clumsily dodged out of the way. "Kami-sama, it wasn't that bad a speech!" Sailor Moon whined.

"Just finish the thing off!" Venus demanded. She was stuck to the wall by three large tokens. "I do have things to do."

"Hai! MOON PRINCESS HALATION!" And with that, the Droid was destroyed. "Dusted!" Sailor Moon crowed. The only response was a yelp of surprise as Sailor Venus fell heavily to the floor once the evil tokens disappeared.

# # # # #

"That was pathetic, Rubeus," Petz remarked. "You can get one of the others to work with her but I won't."

Rubeus glared at Petz. "It might have been pathetic but it allowed us to make our hold on the Crystal Point we captured stronger." 'But what does this mean? I thought she said this would be simple.'

Chibi-Usa for her part was stomping back and forth fuming, 'What is it between 'Chibi-Usa' and the Sailor Senshi? Every time I attack her, they show up... You got lucky today, 'Chibi-Usa', but you won't get away next time!'

# # # # #

Usagi along with the others met at the Shrine. "Rei-chan, where's Chibi-Usa?" she asked.

"Taking a nap," Rei indicated. "She played for awhile, helped me clean, and then, she insisted she'd like to have a nap so she's lying down in my room..." 'She's such a kawaii little kid now... No trouble at all.'

"Usagi-chan, are you okay?" Ami asked.

"Just a little scared, Ami-chan. That was awfully close..." Usagi admitted, "But she's going after me specifically... It seems that the Four Sisters are under her orders."

"The evil Chibi-Usa wants the Ginzuishou and she's willing to kill to get it," Minako observed.

"So what would she do if she found out about the other one?" Makoto asked.

The group was silent lost in thought for a moment before Usagi stated, "We can't let it come to that... We just can't!"

# # # # #

Chapter 11 "Karaberas"

"Iie... Iie, leave her alone!"

Chibi-Usa's eyes flew open at the shout. Fearfully looking around, she saw that Usagi was tossing and turning. 'Onee-san must be having a bad dream... I have to help her.' She pushed Usagi a little; this seemed to stop her motion. Slowly Usagi's breathing returned to normal and then she slipped deeper into slumber.

Snuggling closer to Usagi, she thought, 'There that's better... We had a fun time at the park... We went on the swings and on the teeter-totter and the rubba-dub.' Chibi-Usa was now fully awake remembering the exciting trip to the park. 'And we had ice cream and we went on the slide... I was scared at first when Usagi tried to get down...' She put a hand over her mouth to try and stifle the giggling. 'Onee-san looked sooo funny going down the slide and she got stuck!'

No matter how hard she tried, Chibi-Usa couldn't stop herself from laughing - the vivid image came unhindered to her mind. Usagi had laughed along with her admitting she probably did look silly. It had been a thoroughly enjoyable time for both of them. Her laughter abruptly stopped as Usagi's door swung open and she saw a figure standing in the doorway. Giving a yelp of surprise, Chibi-Usa tried to hide herself behind Usagi. This caused the now partially awake teenager to come fully awake.

"What's going on in here?" Ikuko's sleepy voice demanded; she sounded irritated.

Usagi just having woken up wasn't really sure herself. "I-I'm not sure..." she said truthfully, "I just woke up." That's when she heard the whimper behind her; turning slowly, she saw that Chibi-Usa was fearfully looking at the doorway.

"I... I... Onee-san was having a bad dream. I tried to wake her up but she stopped having the bad dream and was still sleeping." Chibi-Usa's overly sensitive scale of right and wrong blew the situation out of proportion and she rushed on at warp speed. "I was wide awake and trying to be quiet but I thought about our trip to the park and when Onee-san got stuck on the slide and I just started to laugh and I couldn't help it and I'm really really sorry. Gomen nasai." Taking several deep breaths, she looked at her aunt hopefully.

Ikuko regarded her daughter confused, "Did you catch any of that?" Usagi shook her head. The words had been traveling at a speed that her brain couldn't decipher at this early morning hour. She started to walk over towards the bed while saying, "Maybe you should stay in your own bed for the rest of the night, Chibi-Usa-chan."

The child's reaction was immediate. She clamped onto Usagi's arm and whined out, "Iie... iie... please Ikuko-mama! I want to stay with Onee-san! I'll be good..."

Ikuko looked at Chibi-Usa oddly. Nearing the bed, she started to reach for her but the little girl continued whining, "Ikuko-mama, please... Why are you being so mean? I'll go right to sleep. I promise."

Her aunt stopped, gave a stern look at Chibi-Usa, and commanded, "Chibi-Usa, get out of bed..."

Slowly, almost reluctantly, the girl slipped out of bed and stood in front of her aunt head bowed. Ikuko looked over at the teen and asked, "Do you mind if she stays with you the rest of the night, Usagi-chan?" Seeing her daughter nod her head, she turned Chibi-Usa slightly gave her a couple of swats and said, "Chibi-Usa, into bed and right to sleep and no more nonsense." With that, Ikuko left the room and the now crying child slowly climbed back into bed with Usagi.

Settling Chibi-Usa back into bed beside her, Usagi tried to soothe the crying child back to sleep. "Shh... there... there... Imouto..." 'Boy, oh boy... I'll be glad when the old one's back,' Usagi sleepily thought.

# # # # #

"Hi Minako-chan!" Usagi called out while waving to her friend, "Can I talk to you?" She'd started for Minako's place when she'd spotted her walking along the street window-shopping.

"Sure... what's up? Hey, you look... like you didn't get much sleep."

Usagi only gave her a rueful grin before saying, "Yeah well... I wanted to ask you if Chibi-Usa could spend the night... I'm a little worried about the evil one coming to look for me and if she isn't at my house, then there's that much less chance."

"Well, Usagi-chan, I'll have to okay it with my 'rents but I think it should be okay... We can have fun. I have to go shopping for some new stuffed animals and that'll give me the perfect excuse if I take her with me. You know I kinda envy you."

"Me?" Usagi asked surprised.

"Hai... sure you fight with Shingo but at least he's a brother. And Chibi-Usa is your 'imouto'. I don't have any brothers or sisters... All I got are cousins and most of them don't live in Tokyo."

"Well... Minako-chan, I need to ask Chibi-Usa. I haven't asked her yet. And given what happened last night, it's going to be a hard sell..."

"What exactly did happen last night?" curiosity consuming Minako.

"Iie, I better not say... Ja ne!" With that, Usagi left her blond friend with a need to know.

"Now just wait a minute, Usagi!" Minako called after her fleeing friend. 'Oh... You just wait, Odango Atama!'

# # # # #

"Imouto?" Usagi asked as she came into the house.

Chibi-Usa who was sitting at the kitchen table looked up from her coloring book. "Hai?"

"Imouto, would you help me with a problem?"

Chibi-Usa hopped up, went over to stand in front of the teen, and waited. 'Onee-san wants my help! I hope it's an easy problem... I'm just a little kid.'

"Imouto... would you help cheer up Minako?" The child gave Usagi a quizzical look. "See Minako-chan was telling me today that she doesn't have any brothers or sisters... All she has are cousins."

"But I can't be her sister," Chibi-Usa reasoned, "I'm YOUR imouto."

Usagi chuckled and patted the little girl reassuringly on the head. "Hai, you are... but I was thinking you could have a sleepover. See Minako-chan asked if you could come over for a special sleepover... Just you and her."

"Just me and her?" Chibi-Usa questioned.

"Hai... Well, Artemis will be there." Usagi smiled and gave a further push. "She could pretend you were her imouto for a little while and it would make her very happy. And she wants you to help her pick out a special bunny for her stuffed animal collection."

"Honto?"

Crouching down and leaning closer, the teen whispered, "Hai... the naughty Chibi-Usa hurt Minako's stuffed animals so she wants you to help her pick out a special one... And maybe Minako-chan will buy you one too." Usagi was counting how much of her allowance this was going to cost.

'Poor Minako... No little sisters... I'll try to make her happy and pick out a really special bunny for her. She's always been really nice to me and Onee-san.' Chibi-Usa nodded. "Hai Onee-san... Would you please read me a story?"

Usagi nodded and headed after Chibi-Usa who disappeared up the stairs in a flash. 'Yep, this is going to really put a dent in my allowance... I actually managed to only lose a little of it because of that Droid at the arcade.'

Just as she was heading up the stairs she heard her mother's voice say, "And when were you going to okay this sleepover with me, Usagi?"

Usagi stopped dead in her tracks. 'Okaa-san... I forgot to ask Mom if was okay!' She turned sheepishly around to see her mother looking at her arms folded across her chest. 'Uh oh...' "Gomen, Okaa-san, I was going to ask you... It just slipped my mind." Seeing her mother waiting expectantly, Usagi pressed on, "Mom, would it be okay if Chibi-Usa slept over at Minako's for tonight?"

"Now was that so hard?" Usagi shook her head. "Hai, Usagi-chan, it's okay," she agreed. Usagi gave a sigh of relief before her mother continued, "And were you expecting Minako to pay for this toy you want her to buy Chibi-Usa?"

"Iie... I have most of my allowance left. I was gonna give it to Minako to buy one for her."

The fact that Usagi actually had allowance left shocked the woman. What was even more of a shock was Usagi was going to give it up willingly so her friend could buy Chibi-Usa a toy.

"Mom, I know you don't give advances on allowances but what if I did double chores? Could you maybe loan me some money? I don't think my allowance is big enough..."

Ikuko smiled slightly and reached into her pocket she handed Usagi a few folded bills and said, "Don't worry about it, dear."

Usagi was surprised, "But... but..."

"Onee-san?" came the call from upstairs.

"Go on... Go take care of your 'imouto'." She gave her daughter a wink. Usagi gave one more look towards her mother and then left the room shaking her head. 'If Usagi's willing to give up her allowance to buy her 'imouto' a present, I might as well throw in my little bit. Chibi-Usa was so upset last night...' A small frown creased her face. 'I don't remember her being so close to Usagi. She's certainly changed over the past couple of weeks...'

# # # # #

"Karaberas."

"Hai, Rubeus-sama?"

"Karaberas, I have a special mission for you. Not only will you help Princess Usagi but also you will capture a Crystal Point. The Crystal Point comes first... We already have one; let's get another one."

"Will she be patient?" Karaberas asked incredulously.

Rubeus studied Karaberas closely before saying, "Hai... She understands the importance of it... She seemed to even take great pleasure in it."

"As you wish, Rubeus-sama."

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa walked around her quarters abroad the UFO. 'I really must have bigger rooms given to me... Taking a Crystal Point... That will help in my plans...' Then a scowl crossed her face. "I wonder if 'Chibi-Usa' will come there?"

# # # # #

Aino Minako opened the door to see Chibi-Usa and Usagi. Chibi-Usa was carrying a small overnight bag with a cute set of rabbits hopping around decorating it. "Konbanwa Chibi-Usa-chan, Usagi-chan... come in." Usagi greeted Minako as Chibi-Usa and herself entered the house.

"Konbanwa Minako-san. Thank you for asking me to have a sleepover with you," Chibi-Usa replied and bowed, "Hello, Artemis, you're such a pretty kitty."

Usagi quickly covered her mouth to hide the grin. ''Pretty kitty'... hahaha... I'll have to tell Luna that.' The look the white cat had on his face was rather sour.

"This way, Chibi-Usa-chan," Minako indicated leading her guest up the stairs and into her room, "You can put your bag here."

The second-grader placed her overnight bag were the teen showed her and then turned to Usagi who crouched down. Walking over, Chibi-Usa gave Usagi a hug and said softly, "I'll miss you, Onee-san."

"I'll miss you too, Imouto. You be a good girl, okay?" Chibi-Usa nodded. Giving her a hug, Usagi got up and asked, "Minako-chan, can I talk to you for a second?"

Nodding, Minako suggested, "Chibi-Usa-chan, why don't you play with Artemis... He's been a lonely kitty." The expression of childish delight that spread across Chibi-Usa's face set the older girls giggling. Artemis got an even more sour expression when she picked him up that just made the girls laugh even harder.

# # # # #

Slipping downstairs, Usagi said, "Here Minako-chan." With that, she handed over the rest of her allowance and a little extra she managed to get from her mother. "Please take this and buy Chibi-Usa-chan a stuffed animal too." Usagi opened the door and slipped out. "Ja ne."

"Ja ne," Minako chirped and pocketed the money. 'Kami-sama, you've really got it bad for this little girl.' Walking back upstairs, she found Artemis completely stretched out in Chibi-Usa's lap purring away.

The little girl had chosen an excellent spot. It was right in the warmth of the sun and she seemed to know where that particularly hard place to reach was. To put it mildly, Artemis was in cat heaven.

# # # # #

After supper when Minako and Chibi-Usa had left for the mall, Minako's parents sat around discussing the little girl.

"What a vast improvement from the last time," Mrs. Aino started.

"Hai, you can easily see that Usagi's parents took the little girl in hand and straightened her out."

"Don't you think they might have straightened her out a little too much?" Mrs. Aino inquired. "I mean Minako's polite but to have a little girl that polite?"

"I'll have to ask Tsukino-san what he did," Mr. Aino commented and then turned back to his newspaper.

# # # # #

"Wow! Look at all the toys!" Chibi-Usa cried happily. "Where are the stuffed animals?"

"Honey, before we go in, you have to promise me to hang onto my hand. If we get separated, I want you to stay right where you are no matter what." 'And don't destroy any of the animals.'

"But what if we do get sep... sep... I'm alone and I have to go to the bathroom?"

"Well that's different," Minako said again, "If you wander off and I can't find you, I might worry." 'It'll help also if the evil one shows up... but why would they evil one come here?' "And if I can't find you, Usagi-chan would be very angry with me."

Chibi-Usa considered. 'She's really being nice to me. Onee-san was right... Minako really wants an imouto.' She regarded Minako and then the toy store and then Minako again. "I promise." Taking the blonde's hand, they entered the store and were lost immediately in a multitude of color.

# # # # #

"Your Highness, how is the operation proceeding?" Rubeus asked.

Chibi-Usa glanced over at Karaberas who nodded. "Real good. The Sailor Senshi haven't come and all the toys we're selling have Dark Energy."

Karaberas broke in, "Hai Rubeus-sama, we are infecting the people with Dark Energy, capturing the Crystal Point, and when the toy store closes we will go and seek out this 'Chibi-Usa'." 'Oh Kami-sama, I hope this ends soon... I don't even know how Petz stood the Rabbit.'

"Excellent!" Rubeus said and then cut the connection.

# # # # #

"Oh look at all the bunnies!" Minako squealed in delight. "Aren't they just so kawaii?" Minako was in paradise acting like a child Chibi-Usa's age.

"Hai!" Chibi-Usa agreed. "What one are you going to buy, Minako-chan?"

"All of them!" Minako squealed.

Chibi-Usa gave Minako a funny look, 'That would cost a lot of money.'

"May I help you?" came a voice behind them.

Minako turned to the voice to see Karaberas disguised as a salesclerk approaching them. As Minako moved, Karaberas got a glimpse of someone who looked familiar. An unnoticed frown crossed Karaberas' face. 'What is that little runt playing at this time?'

"Is something wrong?" Minako asked.

"Iie, Gomen... Was there something I could help you find?" Karaberas plastered a smile across her face. 'Well she's still under Rubeus' protection. If she wants to play little kid, that's her right... How disgusting!'

"Hai, I was looking for a special stuffed bunny rabbit for Chibi-Usa-chan here," the perky teen announced indicating the little girl who was entranced with a large stuffed pink bunny.

The bunny was almost as tall as Chibi-Usa, was plump, and looked so cuddly! Chibi-Usa squeaked with a large smile, "Could I please see that one?" Pointing to the overly large bunny.

Karaberas smiled. That was one of her special Droids. 'Isn't this ironic. I'm going to teach the Rabbit a lesson with a giant pink bunny.' "Hai." Moving over, she reached out, plucked the bunny off the shelf, and handed it to the little girl.

She gave a sharp cry of pain and let the bunny drop to the ground. Tears welled up in her eyes as she clutched her hands together and started dancing around. Minako was surprised at first and went over to see what was wrong.

"It hurts! It hurts!" Chibi-Usa screamed. Minako had never personally seen Chibi-Usa release her energy beam but as she was trying to get her still, there was a sudden swirl of light. The crescent moon on Chibi-Usa's forehead appeared and then suddenly an energy beam shot up into the sky.

Karaberas was shocked, 'But... but...' her mind was numb. Minako quickly went over to Chibi-Usa who was on the ground clutching her hands. Helping the little girl up, Minako said, "Let me see honey..." Worry and gentleness she took the girl's hands and opened them up to see that the palms and the fingers were a deep red and seemed to be throbbing.

"Where have you been? What caused that light!" came a familiar voice.

Karaberas, Minako, and Chibi-Usa (who was still in tears) all looked in the direction that the voice was coming from. They're coming down the aisle was another Chibi-Usa but dressed very differently.

"NANI?" Karaberas asked shocked, "How can this be?"

"What are you..." evil Chibi-Usa started and then saw her other self. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared. 'What was this?' "You dare copy royalty?" Chibi-Usa yelled out while starting to stalk towards the good Chibi-Usa.

"Konnichiwa, you must be my sister," Chibi-Usa reasoned. "Maybe you should put on your school fuku and then we can play together. We should get our pictures taken. We'd look very kawaii."

"You're NOT my sister..." Then Chibi-Usa saw something around the other girl's neck, "MY KEY! That damn baka took my key and gave it to you?" Pulling herself up to the grand height of three-foot eight, the evil Chibi-Usa declared, "I'm the only Princess of Crystal Tokyo and I'm going to make sure that you pay for your lack of respect."

"Nani? I've been extra good, even Rei-chan said I was," Chibi-Usa stated. "And don't you say I did bad things because Minako-chan might tell Onee-san."

The advancing Chibi-Usa stopped again and questioned, "Onee-san?" 'What's the baka talking about?'

"Hai Usagi-chan. She's our onee-san and we're her imouto." 'She really does need a hug.'

Minako had quietly signaled the others that something was amiss and was trying to think of how to get out of this situation when Karaberas provided the distraction.

"What's going on?" Karaberas now thoroughly confused demanded. She didn't care what Rubeus said, it was getting way too weird for her.

"Quiet!" evil Chibi-Usa snapped.

Minako grabbed the good Chibi-Usa and placing the child under her arm, she ran for the bathroom.

"GET 'EM!" evil Chibi-Usa raged far behind them.

Only too glad to be in control, Karaberas commanded, "Droid Flopp-a lot, come forth!"

The pink bunny rabbit grew in size. It had some difficulty getting up but soon was on its hind paws. Its once blue eyes were now a violent purple color, two large fangs hung down from its upper lip. Its once floppy ears now hung down to the floor coming to a razor sharp point.

"GET 'EM! GET 'EM!" Chibi-Usa commanded. She was in a childish temper tantrum. "I'M THE ONLY PRINCESS OF CRYSTAL TOKYO!" She stomped her feet in anger.

"Droid Flopp-a lot, get the humans," Karaberas indicated the fleeing forms of Minako and Chibi-Usa.

"Hai, Karaberas-sama!" it boomed out and started to hop after the fleeing pair. Each mighty bound took it several meters. Each of its impacts made the ground shake and toys fall off the shelves.

# # # # #

"Honey, you stay right here," Minako ordered as she placed Chibi-Usa inside the bathroom, "If anybody comes in here but me or Usagi-chan, you hide." With that, Minako started out the door.

"But Minako-chan, you can't go out there! You'll get hurt!" Chibi-Usa protested.

Having no time to argue the point, Minako turned around and said in the most authoritative voice she could, "Chibi-Usa-chan, you will stay in here until I or Usagi come to get you or else." With that, Minako left again.

Chibi-Usa whimpered slightly, 'I hope Minako will be okay... I'm glad Onee-san's not out there...'

# # # # #

Sailor Venus emerged to find Sailor Jupiter going hand to "paw" with the beast. Unfortunately, every time Jupiter hit the bunny, her hand sank into the soft material seeming not to have any effect on the thing.

Tiring of the game, Flopp-alot swung its head around and brought both ears to bear on Jupiter. The impact flung the Sailor Senshi across the store out the door and skidding along the ground.

Venus decided it was her turn. "Hey!" Venus shouted. Flopp-alot turned around to see who was yelling at it. Venus lifted her hand for her attack and shouted, "VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

The chain flew out, wrapped itself around Flopp-alot's body, and pulled. Flopp-alot snarled and reached down with its two large front paws grabbing the chain and giving a mighty yank started to spin Sailor Venus around.

"Owww! Stop it please! I think I'm going to be sick!" Venus pleaded. All she could see was the store whirling around in front of her.

"Toys are for the enjoyment of children, not to frighten them! I am still a child at heart and for ruining my fun, you will pay! I am the Pretty Sailor-Suited Senshi, SAILOR MOON! In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

Flopp-alot gave one last twirl and then let go of Venus' chain. Sailor Venus had common sense enough to let the chain go. She tucked herself and waited. With a "flop!", she landed neatly in the giant teddy bear's lap that was at the entrance to the toy store. "Boy, am I glad to see you," Venus confided.

"MOON PRINCESS HALATION!" Sailor Moon shouted wasting no time in finishing off the Droid. Sailor Jupiter recovered and was walking toward Venus. Sailor Moon as well rushed over to Venus and asked, "Venus, are you okay?"

"Hai... but we got a problem..."

# # # # #

"Chibi-Usa-chan?" Minako called out. She'd transformed back and now had gone to pick up her charge. At the sound of her voice, Chibi-Usa who had hidden behind a trashcan popped up and ran to red ribbon-wearing blonde.

The teen bent down and picked Chibi-Usa up. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Chibi-Usa-chan, but it was very dangerous out there."

She gave Minako a hug and while whimpering slightly said, "I was scared... Can... Can we go home now?"

"Honey, what's the matter? I'm all right; I'm not hurt..." Minako drifted off for a few seconds before saying, "Oh! Your hands!" She set Chibi-Usa on the counter and looked at the little girl's hands. "Do they hurt?"

"They're itchy," Chibi-Usa complained.

"Well we'll go home and put some cream on them... I just wanted to make sure you were safe. That's why I told you to stay here... Chibi-Usa-chan, do you want to go back to Usagi's?"

"I'm not mad at you, Minako-chan. I wanna stay with you tonight!" 'She's my onee-san today... It would be bad if I leave... Onee-san will be proud of me.'

Minako just smiled reassured that Chibi-Usa wasn't mad at her.

# # # # #

"Damn those Sailor Senshi!" Chibi-Usa raged, "Every time!" As soon as the Senshi had shown up, Karaberas had teleported them to the UFO. "I'll get the Ginzuishou from you 'Chibi-Usa' but now you'll have to wait... I have a bigger problem... that copy of me!"

Then her rage turned on to a different topic. "MY KEY! That BAKA ODANGO ATAMA took MY KEY... Maybe when she took Luna-P..." Then an evil thought occurred to her. "Luna-P... that 'copy' must have Luna-P... and MY KEY!"

'The 'copy' WILL die!'

# # # # #

Chapter 12 "Cooan"

"So there's another Rabbit?" Rubeus asked.

"Hai, Rubeus-sama," Karaberas confirmed. She had dropped her cargo off and then vanished to report to Rubeus. It appeared the ill-mannered Rabbit was showing her true age and throwing a mighty temper tantrum.

"What makes you so sure that it was her twin rather than some child who looked amazingly similar?" Rubeus was forming a plan but he dare not take the chance of having the second child turn out not to be a second Rabbit.

"The energy beam... We know that only the Rabbit emits an energy beam and that's what this one did when she touched the Droid." Karaberas was also curious about that reaction.

"I must inform Wiseman. Our spies seem to have failed to notice her twin..." Rubeus concluded. 'Excellent, won't Wiseman be pleased. Two Rabbits and the Ginzuishou. This will definitely put me in Wiseman's favor...' "Arigato, Karaberas... Petz!"

"Hai, Rubeus-sama." Petz flitted into existence; she hadn't been doing anything so the summons wasn't inconvenient.

"Tell Her Highness that I wish to see her."

"Hai!" Petz flitted out of the room. She was actually going to enjoy this assignment.

# # # # #

Petz looked into the quarters that the Rabbit was assigned aboard their spaceship and found the tantrum was still going on strong. Petz tried to hide a chuckle. It looked just like a little kid who hadn't got her own way. Which, of course, it was.

The room looked like it had been hit by a hurricane. Chibi-Usa was throwing things and every so often would stomp around screaming, "IT JUST AIN'T FAIR!" With each word, she'd stomp her small foot in indignation. After that, another fit of anger would take over and the child would find something else to throw.

Petz walked into the room and announced, "Rubeus-sama wants you to report to him immediately."

"BAKA! You dare come in without asking and being told to!" Chibi-Usa whirled around on Petz and started stalking towards her. Petz wasn't about to stand for this. She was following Rubeus' orders, and enjoying every second of it!

"Listen here, squirt, you might be a princess but I suspect your mother taught you to mind your elders," Petz hissed out menacingly. 'Eww! That felt so good!' Chibi-Usa stopped dead in her tracks. She couldn't believe one of Rubeus' lackeys was talking back to HER! She started to reply but Petz was continuing to speak, "Whether you find me acceptable or not, I'm one of your elders and you haven't even begun to earn my respect. Now Rubeus sent me to get you and I suggest you comply, quickly!"

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa appeared before Rubeus, none too pleased that she'd been practically ordered here. "Your lackey told me you wished to see me."

"Hai Your Highness... I want your twin captured ALIVE; she is not to be killed."

"You dare..." Chibi-Usa composed herself, "Why?"

"Your Highness, Wiseman has standing orders to capture you, remember? If you present your twin to him, he will leave you alone and might give you more power."

"Ne, Rubeus, what about 'Chibi-Usa'?" Chibi-Usa wondered. 'More power... Hai Rubeus, soon you will be my lackey... And Petz will pay for talking bad to me.'

"You may kill her as you wish... You may even torment your twin," Rubeus offered. He could see the eager anticipation in the girl's eyes. "Just think about it, Your Highness... The Ginzuishou, something to save your life, and revenge." 'The baka rugrat is eating out of my hand.'

Chibi-Usa considered his offer. "And what do you get out of this?" 'I don't trust you, Rubeus... You're up to something...'

"I'll gain Wiseman's favor. I also will be allowed to leave this primitive place."

The girl considered what Rubeus had said. He wasn't telling her everything but that was to be expected. There was something else bothering her, but what was it? "The copy will not die," Chibi-Usa conceded.

Rubeus hid a smile. 'Excellent!'

# # # # #

"Cooan."

"Hai," Cooan's small voice answered. She had been displaced from her prized position as Rubeus' favorite by the Rabbit. This had not made her a great admirer of the little girl.

"I have a special job for you," Rubeus began. 'I've got to give her a carrot.'

"You mean the others won't do it, ne?" 'I've already heard how the Rabbit treated my sisters.'

"Now, now Cooan, my sweet, don't be petty." Rubeus smiled. "Tomorrow's the Rabbit's last chance. If she fails, you are to capture her. You are also to capture the Rabbit's twin. I will present both of them to Wiseman, even if I don't have the Ginzuishou... Wiseman will be pleased, and with his pleasure comes power... You will rise with me, Cooan-chan."

"As you command, Rubeus-sama. I will not fail." Cooan smiled. She was going to enjoy tomorrow.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was sitting on Minako's bed in her bunny pajamas curiously watching her adopted onee-san rummage through one of her drawers. A few moments later, Minako straightened up with a pair of socks and walked over to the bed.

"Give me your right hand, Chibi-Usa-chan," the blond teen ordered. Chibi-Usa complied and held out her right hand. Minako took it turned the palm up and started rubbing some burn ointment into the skin. "Feel better?"

"Hai... it tingles a bit," Chibi-Usa sniffed, "Smell's pretty too."

Minako smiled. "The tingling is from the medicine." After a thorough rub, she got one of her socks and put it over Chibi-Usa's right hand.

"Nani?" Chibi-Usa questioned in surprise.

"It will stop you from scratching the itch," she explained. "When I had chicken-pox when I was a little girl, my mom put socks on my hands to stop me from scratching."

Chibi-Usa looked at her now sock-covered hand and giggled. 'Onee-san said I'd have fun here...' Minako chuckled as well. 'She's a really good onee-san. Maybe I should tell Minako's mommy that she'd like an imouto...' A smile crossed the child's face as she got a great idea.

"Other hand please," Minako requested, and waited as Chibi-Usa presented her left hand. She rubbed some ointment and put a sock over that hand as well. "Now then, would you like me to read you a story?"

"Hai!" Chibi-Usa declared. She hopped off the bed and got out the book from her overnight bag. Handing it to Minako, she hopped back up on the bed and then snuggled under the covers.

"Oh... don't forget this, Chibi-Usa-chan." Minako smiled and handed the girl a football-sized soft stuffed pink bunny. It had long floppy ears with big red eyes. Chibi-Usa reached up took the bunny that Minako had bought her and snuggled it lovingly against her chest.

'She's so kawaii... I almost wish... Kami-sama, I'd better watch it or I'll be wanting my parents to give me a little brother or sister,' the fourteen year old thought, and then started reading the storybook.

# # # # #

As Minako and Chibi-Usa entered the kitchen the next morning, Chibi-Usa stopped, hugged Minako, and said, "Arigato, Minako-chan, for buying me that bunny last night."

Minako bent down. "Your onee-san gave me the money. Maybe you should name your bunny."

Tears of happiness formed in Chibi-Usa's eyes. 'Onee-san really loves me... but she wouldn't want to me to cry in front of Minako.' She wiped her eyes and nodded. 'I'll have to thank Usagi for giving Minako the money... She's the 'bestest' onee. Hmm... Now what can I name my bunny?' With that, she hopped up onto the chair ready for breakfast.

"Ohayo, Mom," Minako chirped as she came into the kitchen.

"Ohayo, Minako. Ohayo, Chibi-Usa-chan," Mrs. Aino replied cheerfully, "I hope you both slept well... Chibi-Usa-chan, why don't you put your bunny on the couch and I'll get your breakfast."

"Hai." Hopping down, the little girl went into the living room placed her bunny carefully on the couch so it could watch TV and told it, "Rini, now you be good." With that, she returned to the breakfast table.

"Rini?" Minako questioned when Chibi-Usa was sitting at the table again.

"Hai... for my mommy. Her name's Ser... Ser..." Chibi-Usa scrunched up her face. 'Would Puu be mad if I said her name?'

"Serenity?" Minako questioned with some shock. 'Hmmm...'

"Minako-chan, you're smart!" Chibi-Usa clapped her hands happily. "How'd you guess?"

The beribboned blonde smiled and then wondered, "Chibi-Usa-chan, are your hands itchy this morning?"

"Iie..." Chibi-Usa said happily and started to eat her breakfast. Minako being just as hungry began eating breakfast as well. She didn't notice the spark of humor in her mother's eyes.

"Minako-chan... what names do you like?" Mrs. Aino asked innocently.

"Well... I think my favorite name is Senji for boys and maybe Sayoko for girls. Why Mom?"

"Oh... I might need one," Mrs. Aino mused and calmly and quietly walked out of the kitchen while counting how long it would take for that comment to register with her daughter.

It didn't take too long. "NANI?" Minako yelled, "'I might need one'?" With that, she jumped up from the table and pelted after her mother.

The seven year old watched in fascination. 'I thought Minako wanted an imouto... All I said to Minako's mommy was that Minako was all alone...'

# # # # #

"You know... something strange happened last night," Usagi absently said as she, Ami, and Makoto were eating lunch at school, "The energy beam..." She swallowed the food she was chewing. "When Chibi-Usa was normal and I spanked her for the first time, she let it off. The good one is overly sensitive and, the night before last, Mom gave her a couple of swats because she was making noise. Chibi-Usa cried but didn't release the beam... And then all of a sudden last night right in the toy store..." Usagi raised her hands in an arching motion and took another bite.

"It's possible that by your tampering with the natural order, the requirements for the beam's emission were changed," Ami hypothesized. Seeing the blank looks of her friends, Ami explained, "When you split them, the circumstances required to occur to make Chibi-Usa unconsciously release the beam changed." Ami set down her book and continued to talk like a professor lecturing on an interesting subject. "When Chibi-Usa was normal and you spanked her for the first time, Chibi-Usa probably was scared of you... Now though, she knows that you and your mom don't really mean to hurt her so she doesn't fear you specifically, only being in trouble but that fear isn't as strong. Last night, as Minako stated, contact with the Droid hurt Chibi-Usa. The intense pain and the surprise would be enough to make her very fearful and scared so she released the beam. I think the beam acts like a distress call..."

Usagi sat in silence trying to digest all the new information and the delicious lunch Makoto prepared. After a long moment, Usagi said, "Thank you very much, Mizuno-sensei." This caused her genius friend to blush slightly, and then they were called back into class.

# # # # #

Usagi glanced at the clock. 'I really do miss having Chibi-Usa around... Okay I'll wait another ten minutes, then meet Minako at the park with Chibi-Usa.' She was home from school. Minako had said she'd pick Chibi-Usa up from school and take her to the park where she would meet Usagi.

Looking back at her homework, Usagi sighed. She'd much rather be outside but now that she was not getting detention and had passed the last few quizzes, barely but had passed. She turned back to it. 'Might as well keep it up... Mom seems to be in a better humor... She doesn't yell as much... and it will make Chibi-Usa proud of me...'

That's when she heard a noise from downstairs. Getting up, she opened the door and headed to the top of the stairs. "Mom? I'm going over to pick Chibi-Usa up from the park in a few minutes. I don't think we'll be too long."

That's when the form of Chibi-Usa appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "No 'Chibi-Usa', I'm not that old hag... I've come for the Ginzuishou and I'm gonna get it," Chibi-Usa snarled out.

'Uh oh...' Usagi thought, 'Can't transform here...' She ran back into her room and shut the door. She could hear Chibi-Usa's footsteps on the stairs slowly stalking their way up and then along the hall. 'What to do... What to do... I have to get out of here fast!'

The girl forced the door open with her enhanced strength and snarled out, "Give me the Ginzuishou, 'Chibi-Usa', and I'll kill the old hag quickly. Else..."

Usagi's fight-or-flight mode kicked over to fight; nobody threatens her family. Rushing forward, Usagi grabbed the floating Chibi-Usa and tossed the very surprised and enraged child lightly across the room. Usagi raced off down the hall, down the stairs, and out of the house. After checking to make sure she wasn't being followed, she dashed off down the street.

Having regained her balance, Chibi-Usa snarled, hopped out of Usagi's window, and floated gently to the ground. She started running along the street looking for her target and she caught the flash of long blond pigtails. ''Chibi-Usa', you can't get away from me!' Smiling evilly, she raced around the corner and levitated.

What she came face to face with was not who she expected. There standing in front of her was Sailor Moon! Chibi-Usa tried to backpedal but forgot that she was floating.

Sailor Moon reached out, grabbed Chibi-Usa, and gave a very nonstandard speech, "Little girls who go around and threaten people's lives are very naughty, and need to be spanked, or merged with their good halves... I am the Pretty Sailor-suited Senshi, SAILOR MOON! And in the name of the Moon, I will MERGE you!"

"COOAN!" Chibi-Usa bellowed. 'Where IS that baka?'

Sailor Moon yelped and jumped backwards letting go of Chibi-Usa as Cooan's attacked slammed into the wall right above Sailor Moon's head.

"Get me to the park. NOW!" Chibi-Usa commanded, "Thank 'Chibi-Usa' for telling me where the 'copy' is, Sailor Baka!"

"IIE!" Sailor Moon shouted and tried to grab Chibi-Usa again but she was too late, "Iie!" Sailor Moon yelled in disbelief. Using her communicator, Sailor Moon alerted the others, "Minna, get to the park right away! The evil one knows where Chibi-Usa is!"

She heard acknowledgments from everyone except Sailor Venus. With a building sense of fear and anger, Sailor Moon sped off down the street towards the park. 'I've got to save Imouto!'

# # # # #

"Ah... MINAKO-CHAN! ONEE-SAN! HELP ME PLEASE!" the good Chibi-Usa cried in terror as the evil Chibi-Usa plucked her out of the swing she had been swinging on and started to raise up into the air.

"Oh, don't worry. We're going someplace they won't be able to find us."

"Where are you going?" Cooan questioned. 'The Rabbit has failed. Time to bring both of them back... Time to regain my position with Rubeus!'

Taking the opportunity, Minako slipped behind some bushes and transformed. She quickly returned to the scene. "You leave her alone!" Sailor Venus demanded, "Little girls are made of syrup and ice and everything nice, and I will NOT allow you to hurt her. I am Pretty Sailor-suited Senshi of Love and Beauty, SAILOR VENUS. In the name of the planet Venus, I'll punish you!"

Cooan and both Chibi-Usas regarded Venus oddly. The good Chibi-Usa started to giggle slightly before letting off a cry of pain. The evil Chibi-Usa snarled, "Shut your trap or you'll get it again!" With that, the evil Chibi-Usa started off again, the other one whimpering slightly.

"Droid Aquaticus, come forth!" Cooan shouted.

The fountain near Venus trembled slightly and then water in a vaguely humanoid shape rose from it. "Aquaticus, take care of this baka Sailor Senshi. I have other things to do."

"As you command, Cooan-sama!" Raising a fist, Aquaticus threw a punch. Its arm extended and Venus only barely managed to sidestep the attack. The fist and arm acted like a battering ram and toppled a large tree that was in its path.

Wanting to gain a little breathing room, Venus shouted, "VENUS CRESCENT BEAM!"

Now it was unfortunate that Minako had missed the science lesson dealing with refraction and deflection. The crescent beam entered Aquaticus bounced around and then shot out its side. It shot out over the park and neatly put a hole through a stonewall.

"Oops!" Venus said sheepishly. 'Good thing Artemis isn't around...'

# # # # #

'Ollie ollie oxen free, come out, come out, wherever you are!' Cooan thought. She'd lost sight of the Rabbits.

# # # # #

"I'm Princess Usagi of Crystal Tokyo... You have no respect for royalty but you will learn," the evil Chibi-Usa chided. She was holding the good Chibi-Usa down with one hand. The good Chibi-Usa had struggled at first but was no match for the increased strength of the evil one.

"And this is mine!" the evil Chibi-Usa declared. She reaching up, grabbed hold of the Time Key, and yanked. The good Chibi-Usa yelped slightly and started to whimper. "Hai, you should be scared... That baka who you call 'Onee-san' got away. I was going to have some fun with her but now, I can't so I'll just have to with you."

"ONEE-SAN!" the good Chibi-Usa started to cry, "Onee-san, help me please!"

"Shut up!" the evil Chibi-Usa snarled, "That is sick wanting that baka as a sister..." She smiled and pressed a little harder down on the very sickening child. "You know once I get the Ginzuishou, I'm going back to the future," the evil Chibi-Usa held up the Time Key and its broken chain. The good Chibi-Usa shook her head no. The evil Chibi-Usa continued, "Hai, I will go back to the future... Do you know what I'm going to do there?"

"Save Mommy?" the good Chibi-Usa meekly said.

"BAKA! I'm not gonna save Mommy... I'm gonna kill Mommy!" The good Chibi-Usa gave a gasp and started to struggle. "Hai, I'm gonna kill Mommy and Daddy... and then I'll be Queen of Crystal Tokyo!"

"IIE! That's mean, Mommy and Daddy love us!"

"I don't care... Do you know what I'm gonna do to you?" There was no reply. "I'm going to do all the bad stuff those old baka did to me before I give you to Wiseman... Then with his help, I'll slowly kill Mommy and Daddy." Lowering her face so it was now right in front of the terrified expression of the good Chibi-Usa, the evil one breathed out, "Then I'll be Queen... That'll be fun, ne? Now let's start."

# # # # #

Sailor Moon had arrived at the park and noticed two important things. Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury were the only ones standing. Sailor Jupiter was lying on the ground with Sailor Venus watching over her. The more important thing was that neither Chibi-Usa was in sight. Without a speech or moment's hesitation, Sailor Moon dispatched the Droid. "MOON PRINCESS HALATION!" was the battle cry. When the Droid was nothing but a pile of dust, Sailor Moon ran towards her friends.

"What happened to Jupiter and where's Chibi-Usa?" Sailor Moon demanded.

"She used her attack and it arced back knocking her out... Mercury says she'll be okay though," Mars replied.

"Where's Chibi-Usa?" Sailor Moon asked again.

"The evil one took her," Sailor Venus croaked out, "I tried to stop her but I couldn't..." Venus broke down into tears.

Sailor Moon noticed something on the ground. It was a stuffed pink bunny. Walking over and picking it up, Sailor Moon dusted it off and said quietly, "Then what are we going to do?"

That's when the energy beam shot into the air. "IMOUTO!" Sailor Moon shouted and took off at a speed unprecedented in any of her previous runs. The Sailor Senshi were hard pressed to keep up, especially Jupiter who had just started to regain consciousness and stubbornly refused to stay where she was.

# # # # #

Cooan had spotted the energy beam as well and headed straight there. What she saw made her stop and reconsider if Rubeus' anger would be worse than what she had seen. Heading from the opposite direction as her was one very enraged-looking Sailor Moon followed at a distance by some rather grim-looking Sailor Senshi. Feeling that retreat was the better part of valor, Cooan teleported away leaving the identical but very opposite Rabbits to her enemy.

The energy beam had knocked the evil Chibi-Usa off of the good one who was cowering on the ground. The evil one had just started to get up and stalk towards the good Chibi-Usa when Sailor Moon's voice made her stop.

"Venus take out the evil one but don't hurt her," Sailor Moon ordered.

Nodding, Venus used her chain to encircle and snare the evil Chibi-Usa who with her foul mouth demanded to be let free and was describing what would happen to the Senshi for touching royalty.

Sailor Moon raced over and scooped up the good Chibi-Usa who was crying hard. "Chibi-Usa-chan, it's okay now," Sailor Moon soothed while hugging Chibi-Usa, "I'm going to make things all better."

"I want MY ONEE-SAN! I WANT MOMMY!" Chibi-Usa howled.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, stay with Mars. I'll go find Usagi," Sailor Moon requested and sprinted away. A minute or so later, Usagi came running back to the scene. Seeing the very angry look that the evil one was giving her, Usagi said, "Sailor Moon told me where you guys were... She spotted one of the Four Sisters and went after her; she seemed extremely upset."

At Usagi's voice, the good Chibi-Usa squirmed out of Mars' arms and ran to her in tears. "Onee-san! I was really scared! And... and she..." The girl couldn't find the words and when Usagi picked her up just buried her face into her shoulder.

Usagi started soothing the girl. 'I have to calm her down... What she's going to have to do will be very hard for her.. for us all...' After several minutes of softly talking to Chibi-Usa and giving her the stuffed bunny she had dropped, Chibi-Usa settled down but continued to cling to Usagi.

"Imouto... I need you to do something for me." Chibi-Usa raised her head and regarded the teen. The look that Usagi saw nearly caused her to call off the entire plan. There was fear and sadness in those eyes and they made Usagi's heart ache. "Do you trust me, Imouto?" The girl nodded her head. Usagi nodded to Sailor Mars who stepped forward stood directly in front of the evil Chibi-Usa, and started to activate her ofuda.

Just as Sailor Mars placed the ofuda on the evil Chibi-Usa, Sailor Venus let her chain disappear. The evil Chibi-Usa stiffened and grunted slightly but remained still, looking wildly around, trying to figure out what had happened. She was effectively helpless. Mars stepped back a little and nodded to Usagi.

Usagi gave the good Chibi-Usa a hug and urged, "Imouto... I need you to go and hug the other Chibi-Usa."

"Iie... iie... She's very mean to me! I'm scared of her!" Chibi-Usa started to cry again. 'Please Onee-san, let's go home and you can read me a story...' She hid her face again and increased her grip. She really didn't want to be around the bad girl that hurt her and threatened her parents.

"Imouto please, she won't do anything bad, I promise," Usagi tried to comfort Chibi-Usa and started to walk towards the immobilized child.

'Onee-san's right... My new sister needs a hug but... She's so mean... She might hurt me...' After some more reassuring talk, Usagi managed to get the good Chibi-Usa to agree. She looked back up to her big sister. 'I have to help my sister. Onee-san will protect me.'

Chibi-Usa slid out of Usagi's arms, handed the bunny to Sailor Venus to hold, and tentatively walked up to the bad little girl who hurt her. "Onee-san says you need a hug." The evil Chibi-Usa growled which caused the good one to back up a step. Getting an encouraging smile from Usagi, the good Chibi-Usa gathered her courage, wrapped her arms around the bad one, and hugged.

'I'll miss you... Imouto...' Usagi sadly thought.

Usagi reacted quickly. Calling on the Ginzuishou, she activated its power and cried, "MOON HEALING... ESCALATION!" In her thoughts, she commanded, 'Ginzuishou, make Chibi-Usa normal again... Please merge the evil one and the good one back into the normal Chibi-Usa!'

And then there was a brilliant flash of light...

# # # # #

Chapter 13 "Old Wounds"

The light faded and a single Chibi-Usa collapsed to the ground. Usagi wasn't sure what had happened. Carefully, she started to approach the child. She stopped a little ways away and crouched down. Usagi couldn't see the expression on Chibi-Usa's face but could tell that her shoulders were shaking slightly.

Reaching out, she took the bunny from Sailor Venus and holding it out said tentatively, "Imouto?"

Chibi-Usa's head snapped out, eyes focused on Usagi, and screamed, "BAKA ODANGO ATAMA! How could you do that to me?" 'She's gone... Why did you take away my onee-san?' Scrambling up, she knocked the offered toy out of Usagi's hand and started to swing her fists wildly at her.

Usagi backed up as fast as she could, away from the sudden and violent outburst. "Gomen, I didn't mean to!" Usagi pleaded.

"Didn't mean to? You BAKA ODANGO ATAMA! You split me in two pieces and... and... Do you know what she... 'I' was going to do?" The terrible image of seeing her evil self telling her what she would do to 'their' parents played over in her mind. Chibi-Usa continued her tirade while going after her cousin. The seven year old had Usagi backed up into a corner now, cowering.

"Now just hold on a second!" the angry voice of Sailor Jupiter started, "Usagi cares about you very much." With that, Jupiter grabbed hold of Chibi-Usa and dragged her back a little from the frightened teen.

"It's HER fault!" Chibi-Usa yelled pointing to Usagi, "Give me the Ginzuishou and I can get out of this awful place! Away from you, BAKA!" 'Why did you do this to me? Don't you love me anymore?'

"What... What about our deal?" Usagi asked meekly. 'Please Imouto...'

Chibi-Usa took several deep breaths trying to calm herself down. 'Why did you spoil it, Usagi? It was so nice before...' After a bit, she hissed, "Iie! I can't wait for Rubeus to be finished... I have to go and save my mommy. How were you going to get Sailor Moon to go with me?"

The pigtailed teen was almost in tears by this point. She really hadn't expected this reaction. 'I knew Chibi-Usa might be angry but I didn't think she'd be this upset!' Usagi meekly stated, "Gomen nasai, Chibi-Usa-chan. I can't give you the Ginzuishou yet. I will, once Rubeus is defeated. I promise."

"You don't care about Mommy... NONE OF YOU DO!" Chibi-Usa yelled. She struggled to get out of Jupiter's restraining hug but failed. "I have to save her!" 'Please?'

"Sailor Moon wouldn't leave Tokyo with Rubeus still around," Sailor Mars countered softly. She walked in front of the child. "Sailor Moon would help you and your mommy but she wouldn't leave the city unprotected." Then swallowing a bit of her pride, Mars continued, "Too often we require her help to destroy the evil Droids."

Chibi-Usa seemed to sag in defeat. Sailor Jupiter let her down and she just stood there. Someone raised the bunny in front of her face and she pushed it away.

"It was a gift, Chibi-Usa-chan. You should keep it."

"I'm not a little kid," Chibi-Usa replied. 'Why don't you just leave me alone? Please... Just put the bunny down and I'll take it.'

"Imouto, Minako has stuffed animals and she's older than you," Usagi pointed out. This drew an odd look from Sailor Venus.

Pounding on Usagi again, Chibi-Usa shouted, "I'm not your sister! I'm not even related to you! I HATE YOU!" Grabbing the bunny, she pelted back through the park before anyone could do anything to stop her.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa came to an area of the park that had several tall trees surrounded by bushes. Crawling under the bushes, she sat down on the ground squeezed the toy bunny tightly and vented her emotions; tears flowed freely now. She wouldn't cry in front of Usagi or the Sailor Senshi. 'How could I even think of hurting Mommy? Why did I do all those nice things for Usagi? I was so happy before... Now... now I feel so mixed up and... alone!'

Unseen by the crying child, Luna sat in the bushes watching. 'Oh, I wish I had arms... I could give you a hug. Why didn't you stay where Usagi was? She could have comforted you. She really loves you.'

# # # # #

Usagi was walking home. 'The others said to give Chibi-Usa some time... I just can't help but feel that I really deserved what she said.' Her mind was whirling with what had happened. She could barely remember that the girls had told her that they'd meet tomorrow after school. 'I know I had to bring Chibi-Usa back, but why couldn't my imouto have been there too? At least, a little bit of her...'

"Usagi-chan?"

The voice caused her to jump. 'When did I get home?' Usagi wondered, 'I thought I was walking?'

She noticed her mother had a worried look on her face. "Usagi-chan? Are you okay?"

"Hai," Usagi replied without meaning it. She really didn't want to talk now; she might start crying. Nothing could bring back her imouto.

"Dear, did you and Chibi-Usa have a fight?"

"Hai! Baka Odango Atama here really screwed up," Chibi-Usa's voice interrupted when she came into the house, "You should have seen it!"

Usagi winced. 'She's actually enjoying my misery... I tried to apologize! What else does she want?' The teen turned and walked up to her room and closed her door.

Ikuko was surprised at this new change. 'I'm actually relieved to hear that they had a fight. These past two weeks have been rather strange.' "Chibi-Usa-chan, that wasn't very nice. I want you to go apologize to Usagi."

"Hai," Chibi-Usa grumbled.

"Is that the bunny Minako bought you?"

"Hai, Minako said Usagi gave her the money but I don't believe her. Usagi would never buy me anything without wanting something. I think Minako's fibbing to help Usagi."

A small frown crossed her aunt's face as she corrected, "Chibi-Usa-chan, Usagi did pay for that. She gave up most of her allowance and offered to do double chores to get more money. I hope you thanked Usagi for buying you that toy?"

Chibi-Usa lowered her head slightly and shuffled her feet. "Iie." 'Usagi did that for me?' Hearing the exasperated sigh, she hurriedly added, "But I will, Ikuko-mama."

"I hope so." Ikuko sighed. 'Well, I did want things back to normal... I guess I got my wish. Still...'

# # # # #

That night, the gulf between them grew wider. Usagi offered to read Chibi-Usa a bedtime story but had the door abruptly slammed in her face. Both girls laid in their separate beds awake thinking about the day.

Usagi for her part was now silently crying. She had lost the respect and love from Chibi-Usa that she had so desperately sought. She had lost her little sister. But the worst thing was... she was alone. Only now was she realizing how much a void in her life Chibi-Usa had filled; the void had once been occupied by Mamoru but no more.

The thought of Mamoru brought another sob to her. She was going to have to tell him everything so he wouldn't be mad at Chibi-Usa. It would be her final duty to the imouto she once had. 'He'll be mad with me. Yet another thing to blame on Usagi. Another baka thing she's done.'

Meanwhile, Chibi-Usa was curled up in her bed. She dearly wished she could have been in Usagi's bed. Instead, she was in her own. No bedtime story read to her; no reassuring goodnight hug. The only thing that she had was the toy bunny and the past now gone it represented. Clutching it tightly to her chest, the little girl started to cry. 'Mommy... how could I have wanted to kill you? I wanna talk to you... I'm so mixed up. I don't know what to do. I have no one...'

The child didn't hear the door swing open or the soft footsteps walking over to her bed. The first thing she knew was someone was rubbing her back. 'Onee-san?' Chibi-Usa really didn't understand it. She was angry with Usagi but at the same time, she really did hope that it was her cousin.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, what's wrong?"

Chibi-Usa turned and was shocked. It was her uncle. Dressed in pajamas and a bathrobe he looked like he'd just gotten out of bed. Chibi-Usa's heart sank. It wasn't her big sister but her uncle. Her mind could only supply one reason why he would be in here and she didn't like the prospect.

"Do you miss your parents?" Kenji began softly while lifting the girl out of bed and continuing to rub her back.

Sitting comfortably on Kenji's lap, Chibi-Usa nodded. He smiled slightly before saying, "I remember when Usagi was little and went to summer camp. She got really homesick but wouldn't let the camp counselor call us." Kenji chuckled slightly. "So the fellow got smart and called us explaining the situation. So, we drove up to camp and surprised her. We told her that we just missed her too much and would she come home..."

Chibi-Usa sniffled a little before saying, "What happened, Kenji-papa?"

"She stayed and wasn't homesick again. All she needed to know was that we still cared about her and that we missed her," he comforted. He had continued rubbing Chibi-Usa's back and it was clear that she was starting to settle down slightly. Then he laid her back down and quietly left.

'Then why can't I tell Usagi that I love her? It was so easy before,' Chibi-Usa asked herself silently. Sniffling once more, she hugged the last remaining symbol of her onee-san and closed her eyes. Soon drifting off into sleep, but it wasn't filled with nice dreams. She saw herself staring back saying over and over again, "I'm going to kill Mommy and Daddy."

# # # # #

The next shock to occur to Chibi-Usa was in the morning. She got dressed into her elementary school uniform stopping only once to wonder exactly how she could actually like school. She passed by Usagi's room and an impulse struck her. 'I'll just wake up that baka!'

She reached up, put her had on the doorknob, and was about to open it when the door suddenly swung inwards. She was pulled into the room and hit something solid.

Usagi stood there already dressed in her own school uniform and smiled. "Ohayo, Chibi-Usa-chan, did you want me to walk you to school?" 'Please say hai, Imouto.'

"Iie, that's for little kids and I'm a big girl... I wouldn't want you to embarrass me anyway."

Usagi winced at that but said, "Okay, fine." 'I have really lost my imouto. She DOESN'T want me to be her onee-san. I feel so very empty.'

Chibi-Usa watched the teen descend the stairs. 'I think I made Usagi sad. I could have been nice and let her walk me to school. It wouldn't have hurt anything. It was fun having Usagi walk me to school before. Now she won't ever do it.'

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was thrilled; Usagi had shown up to walk her home. Hiding a smile, Chibi-Usa walked up to Usagi and hissed, "What are you doing here?" 'I hope she's not mad at me for this morning.'

"We have to go talk to Mamoru, Chibi-Usa-chan," Usagi replied. She automatically reached for Chibi-Usa's hand. The child jerked away from her and glared at her.

"I'm not gonna help you get him back!" 'What on Earth? Why do I think that she wants my help?'

'Well, might as well tell her; she hates me!' "Listen, spore, I'll get him back. He told me that you weren't allowed to see him anymore. I have to tell him what happened so that he'll let you visit him again."

'Why didn't Usagi tell Mamoru what happened? I don't think he would've yelled at her.' "Okay, let's go," Chibi-Usa conceded but didn't take Usagi's hand.

# # # # #

Mamoru answered the door and found the two people he didn't really want to see standing in front of him. "Usagi, I said we were through. I also told you that Chibi-Usa couldn't see me anymore."

"Mamoru-kun... I need to talk to you and this isn't about us."

Sighing, Mamoru let the two girls inside and closed the door. He went and sat down on the couch, crossed his arms, and waited. Chibi-Usa instinctively went to sit down beside Mamoru but was glared down. She instead perched at the end of the couch.

Usagi shuffled her feet for a few minutes considering whether to tell everything in front of Chibi-Usa or not. Glancing up, she saw him becoming impatient so she started her explanation, right from the beginning.

Mamoru and Usagi were so focused on each other that they failed to notice Chibi-Usa blush every so often. As Usagi described what the evil Chibi-Usa had done, Chibi-Usa took on a mortified expression. 'I knew I did naughty things but I didn't think I do that! No wonder Usagi doesn't like me... But this is all Usagi's fault so why should I care? Mamoru won't be mad at me now and then we can be together again.'

After Usagi's explanation was done, Mamoru sat silently for several minutes. 'She thinks I'll blame her; I'll use this against her...' He heaved a sigh. "Arigato Usagi-san. Gomen, Chibi-Usa-chan, a lot of stuff now makes sense."

Chibi-Usa happily got up, plopped herself beside Mamoru, and promptly stuck out her tongue at Usagi. Usagi reacted by lowering her head and walking towards the door. Mamoru's voice stopped her though.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, you apologize to Usagi."

Chibi-Usa couldn't believe it. Mamoru was making her apologize? Regarding Mamoru, he motioned for her to do so. Getting up, Chibi-Usa walked over to stand in front of Usagi and said softly, "Gomen Usagi." 'Gomen nasai, Onee-san.'

Mamoru got up and walked over to Usagi and Chibi-Usa. "Okay, Chibi-Usa-chan, let's set a few ground rules..."

"Rules?" Chibi-Usa whined out, "I hate rules!"

"Rule one... You may only come over here if you come with Usagi or another grownup that we both know."

"Usagi? A grownup?" Chibi-Usa asked incredulously.

Mamoru ignored the smart-mouthed remark and continued, "Rule two... You will be respectful of Usagi. She has treated you with kindness and she is older than you." Seeing the little girl didn't have any smart comeback, he continued, "Rule three... You will address me as either Mamoru-kun, Mamoru-san, or even Mamoru-chan. You will NOT address me as Mamo-chan."

The child didn't look too happy at that point, seeing no alternative though, she complied. "Well if that's settled, Chibi-Usa-chan, remember supper's at five. If you're late, I'll get into trouble." 'Maybe that's what she wants...'

Usagi started for the door and Chibi-Usa followed. 'Why doesn't she stay... I think we could have fun together. We did before.'

"Mamo-cha... Mamoru-kun, could Usagi stay? Please?" 'She and Mamoru should be together...' Chibi-Usa blinked. 'Why would I want that?'

Mamoru looked uncomfortable but the choice was taken out of his hands when Usagi answered, "Iie. I have to go. This is your special time, Chibi-Usa-chan." As the pigtailed teen started to slip out the door, Chibi-Usa heard her whisper, "Besides, he doesn't love me anymore."

Chibi-Usa couldn't tell how she felt. On the one hand, she was glad Usagi was gone. On the other, she'd really like to be able to curl up between Usagi and Mamoru and go to sleep. She hadn't slept well last night and what she wanted was warmth, comfort, and security; this was what Mamoru and Usagi could provide.

# # # # #

The Sailor Senshi meeting that afternoon was rather subdued. The only real business was how Chibi-Usa was fairing. Rei, as usual, was annoyed when Usagi was several minutes late and told her so in no uncertain terms.

"I had to tell Mamoru. He wouldn't have let Chibi-Usa come see him if he hadn't known the truth," Usagi reported. 'I've done all I can. Now I am truly empty.'

There was a shocked silence; even the fiery priestess couldn't believe that Usagi would give up a prized bargaining chip so easily. "Boy, that kid sure did a number on you."

Usagi just slumped; she didn't have any wish to fight. All she really wanted to do was crawl into a hole, curl up, and watch the world go by.

Minako glared at Rei for a few seconds before breaking the awkward silence. "Chibi-Usa said her mother's name was Serenity."

"Nani? As in 'Queen Serenity'?" Makoto asked, eyes wide.

"I don't know, Mako-chan, but that's the only Serenity I know of besides Usagi's past self," Minako offered.

"The mathematical probability of Chibi-Usa having a mother named Serenity and having knowledge of the Ginzuishou without any relationship between them and, in addition, is not from the Silver Millennium is practically nil." Ami sighed. 'Why is it I have to always restate everything?' "The chance of Chibi-Usa having a mother named Serenity is small by itself." Ami paused to make sure the others were following. "The chance of Chibi-Usa knowing about the Ginzuishou is even smaller. The chance that both occur and they aren't related to the Silver Millennium is almost impossible."

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" the Shinto priestess asked. Ami slapped her forehead in disbelief. "Luna, did Queen Serenity have any other children?"

Luna looked edgy before saying, "Well... I don't really remember any but it certainly isn't out of the question. It would explain how Chibi-Usa knows about Usagi, the Ginzuishou, and have a mother named Serenity."

"That spore my imouto from the Silver Millennium? As if!" A spark of hope in Usagi's eyes told a different story though. Luna hated to crush it but why give her false hope.

"I wouldn't worry, Usagi. I can't confirm it and, anyway, Chibi-Usa needing it for Queen Serenity doesn't make sense. Her Majesty died of mortal wounds. Once she used the Ginzuishou's full power, it claimed her essence." That statement pretty much squelched any further talk on the matter and the Sailor Senshi quietly went home.

# # # # #

Later that night found a restless Tsukino home. An arm swung up and found an empty place. Usagi winced a little as her heart ached. She had forgotten that Chibi-Usa wasn't in bed next to her. She had gone to hug the little girl only to find a cold bed.

'Mamoru's gone... Imouto's gone. I am all alone.' Usagi sniffled slightly. 'I tried... I tried to get her back but Chibi-Usa just doesn't want to. I think she asked if I could stay so that Mamoru would be happy with her... Why does it have to be like this? Why can't she be my imouto again, even for a little while?'

Wanting to hug something, Usagi took the pillow that Chibi-Usa had used and hugged it closely to her chest, soft moist tears started to trickle out of her eyes.

Luna again wished she could comfort this obviously hurting girl.

# # # # #

That morning a hopeful Usagi put the question forth once more, "Chibi-Usa-chan, would you like me to walk you to school today?"

Chibi-Usa's irritation at not having Usagi read her a story and not being able to snuggle up and get warm shot down any hope of a civil response. "Iie Odango Atama... I don't need your klutz attacks to kill me." She saw Usagi droop slightly. "Your way of punishing me for being in your room nearly did."

Usagi turned angry. She was furious now. "Well fine, you rotten spore. Walk to school by yourself!" Usagi pushed the little girl out of her way and started to pull her door closed. Turning back to face Chibi-Usa, she continued, "And another thing, I don't want to ever catch you in my room again or I'll warm your backside until it glows!" With that, the pigtailed teen started for the stairs.

"Oh yeah! You and what army?" 'How did this get going? All I said was... Oh, I could have said that better. I wish I could take it back. Gomen.'

"What do you know they're back at it again. What a relief!" came Shingo's voice from the doorway of his room.

"SHUT UP SHINGO!" came the simultaneous response. Both Usagis glared at each other for a moment and then headed downstairs.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa sniffled slightly and tried to push the swing. It just wasn't fun in the park without somebody watching her. Today, Usagi to Chibi-Usa's dismay had not come to her school to walk her home. Coming to the park, Chibi-Usa had tried to play but all she could do was remember the really good time that Usagi and her had when they went to the park.

Chibi-Usa unconsciously giggled at the remembered sight of her cousin stuck in the slide. 'I'd like to do that again...' Chibi-Usa mused, even that night was fun. 'I feel so safe when I'm with Usagi. I don't know why though. She even let me stay in bed after I woke her up... That should have surprised me.'

The girl tried to ignore the intense emotions of fear she felt when she was threatened to be removed from Usagi's presence but without success. 'I don't understand... I was more scared of leaving Usagi than Ikuko-mama being mad.' Remembering how Usagi had comforted her after her aunt had left nearly brought Chibi-Usa to tears. 'Usagi didn't have to do that. She was so nice to me...'

"Would you like a push?"

Chibi-Usa jumped at the voice and whirled around, standing there was Minako. This set the tears flowing. 'Usagi bought me Rini and she let me stay with Minako and Ami and we did have fun together.' She felt herself being picked up and hugged comfortingly.

"Chibi-Usa-chan, what's the matter?"

'I can't stand it. I gotta tell someone. Minako was my onee-san that day. Onee-san...' "M-Minako-chan... Usagi... Usagi-chan and I are fighting," the child sobbed. "I don't know what to do. Usagi tries to be nice to me but all I do is pick on her."

"What do you mean?" the blonde asked softly.

"She wanted to walk me to school this morning and I said..." Chibi-Usa trailed off while flushing. There was a silence for several moments as Chibi-Usa struggled with her feelings. "I said... that I didn't need one of her klutz attacks to kill me. The way she punished me for being in her room nearly did."

"Did you apologize?" Minako questioned. 'Poor Usagi... First Mamoru then Chibi-Usa. She was really down... I have to do something to help her out but what?'

Chibi-Usa sobbed once before saying, "I was going to after school but... but... SHE WASN'T THERE! I don't think she'll listen to me again." 'Why was I so mean to her?' "Please don't tell Usagi!"

Minako just hugged the sobbing child and tried her best to console the little girl. Her heart was in pain and the only person that could probably ease it was probably hurting and scared as well.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa was headed for bed. Tapping softly on the door, she peeked into Usagi's room. The teen was sitting on at her desk scribbling away, a textbook lay open beside her.

'Usagi's doing homework. She wouldn't wanna read me a story.' As if the thought was a question, Usagi declared flatly, "Chibi-Usa-san, please leave. I have homework and you aren't allowed in my room."

Chibi-Usa's head drooped. She softly closed the door and walked to her own room. The tears weren't long in coming. 'No story, no hug...' Picking Rini up, she snuggled into bed and tried to pretend that Usagi was there reading a bedtime story to her. 'Mommy reads stories but Usagi's much better at it. She does all the voices and she sometimes acts it out...' Chibi-Usa giggled but it was only short-lived.

Off in the distance, there was a crack of thunder and Chibi-Usa yelped. There was no one there to give her a comforting hug or wipe away her tears. Snuggling under the covers as much as possible, Chibi-Usa clutched Rini tightly and whimpered; it was going to be a long night.

# # # # #

The next few days proceeded in the same general fashion. Shingo found it pleasing to finally have someone back on his side. Ikuko tried for the most part to ignore it. She figured it was a period of readjustment between the two girls and they were just trying to make up for lost time. However, as the arguing grew more frequent and Usagi's obvious depression deepened, Ikuko's patience wore thin.

One afternoon when there was no school. Ikuko was in the kitchen trying vainly to read a recipe. Chibi-Usa and Usagi were in the living room and whatever they were fighting about was growing in intensity.

Finally, her patience snapped and Ikuko marched into the living room. Usagi was near tears on the couch looking dejectedly at Chibi-Usa who was standing confidently, hands on hips. The woman paused. Chibi-Usa looked like she was going to say something.

"BAKA ODANGO ATAMA, you know you really aren't very smart. You've been working on that math homework for two hours now. Why don't you give up this silly habit? It ain't impressing me any?"

Usagi's lower lip started to tremble slightly. She was about to yell at Chibi-Usa when she saw her mother standing in the doorway. 'What's the use? Chibi-Usa will get away with it and I'll be in the doghouse again.' She lowered her head just hoping that Chibi-Usa would get tired of tormenting her and go away.

Usagi glanced up to see the very angry face of her mother looming over Chibi-Usa. "Young lady, that's just earned you the rest of the day in your room!"

Chibi-Usa whirled around to see her aunt glaring at her. "NANI? You're grounding ME?"

"You'd better believe it! You march up to your room. I'll get you for supper, but you won't be going anywhere for the rest of today or tonight so you might as well put your pajamas on."

"But... But... you've never grounded me before!" Chibi-Usa protested.

"Tsukino Usagi, get up to your room... NOW!" With that, her aunt pointed towards the stairs.

Chibi-Usa knew that tone - it was one of authority. Scurrying up the stairs, Chibi-Usa thought, 'Kami-sama, she could pass for my mommy sometimes!'

# # # # #

"Usagi!" Minako called out, "Usagi-chan, wait up!"

Usagi came to a halt and waited for her friend to catch up. "Hi Minako-chan, what's up?"

"Usagi-chan, are you still upset about Chibi-Usa?" the ribbon-wearing blonde questioned. Usagi's happy expression disappeared. "You should really try and make up with her."

"Who wants that spore as an imouto? The pest is just like Shingo, a real royal pain in the butt!" 'And I love them both.'

"You're not fooling me, Usagi-chan. You care about that little girl far more than you are letting on. I can see it in your eyes."

A pained expression crossed Usagi's face. "Mina! You don't know anything!" With that, Usagi took off down the street. Minako was stunned; she'd really struck a nerve.

# # # # #

Tuxedo Kamen was perched above Minako's bedroom window. Even though he'd been actively avoiding Usagi, he couldn't help but notice her depression. He had seen it himself, heard about it from Motoki, and even Chibi-Usa had hinted that there was a real problem. He wanted to know more and now he was listening covertly to Minako and Artemis conversing.

"I feel really bad, Artemis. I mean I didn't think that pushing her like that would make her hurt so much!"

"Minako-chan, you shouldn't let this bother you. Usagi's still hurting and you just rubbed a little salt into the wound by accident. It isn't like she'll hate you."

"I know Artemis... I just wish I could do something to help Usagi. What I need is a plan. A plan that even Chibi-Usa would be willing to help with."

Tuxedo Kamen had an idea and it was a great opening. Leaping from the rooftop to the nearby tree, Tuxedo Kamen only checked to make sure the window was open before diving into the room.

He heard Artemis give a mighty yowl as he landed behind the bed. Tuxedo Kamen's head popped up and he was about to offer his apology for the abruptness of his entry when heard a rather strange attack phrase...

"MINAKO STUFFED ANIMAL ATTACK!"

# # # # #

Chapter 14 "Onee-san"

There was a flurry of stuffed animals and very soon, Tuxedo Kamen was pinned to the floor with a very angry teenager sitting astride him.

"WHO THE HECK ARE YOU AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?" Minako commanded. Most of the stuffed animals were covering Tuxedo Kamen's face and Minako failed to notice his formal attire.

"Minako-san, it's me!" came the muffled voice of Tuxedo Kamen. She gave a yelp of surprise and vaulted off of Tuxedo Kamen while turning very red. Getting up, Tuxedo Kamen detransformed to make sure that red ribbon blonde knew who it was. Mamoru's actions seemed to make Minako turn even redder.

"Gomen, Minako-san, I didn't mean to embarrass you," Mamoru offered.

"Mamoru, you BAKA! Kami-sama, you're lucky my parents aren't home! I don't care how well you fight; my father'd skin you alive if he caught you up here." That's when a fire started to burn in the teenage girl's eyes. 'What if I had been changing?' Minako started to stalk toward Mamoru while saying, "If you think I'll let you get some perverted kick and annoy Usagi, you're dead wrong! Just wait until I tell her. You must really want to crush her spirit!"

"NANI? IIE!" Mamoru protested, "I don't want to hurt Usagi. I want to help her. Gomen nasai, Aino-san. I should have thought before making that type of entrance." Mamoru stepped back from her a little and continued, "I heard you saying you wished you had a plan to get Usagi and Chibi-Usa together... Why don't you get Chibi-Usa to do something nice for Usagi? Call it a peace offering."

Minako's irritated look remained but she halted her advance, "Have Chibi-Usa do something nice for Usagi, ne? Like what?"

"Iie just suggest that she does; let her decide what to do. It'll be that much more special if she thought of it all by herself."

Minako's irritation slipped away as her brain began formulating a plan. "I could get the others to help out and work on Usagi... Usagi should be fighting to keep her imouto but she hasn't." Minako gave Mamoru a glare before continuing, "If we could get her motivated to do something, then our chances are doubled."

Just then, a voice boomed from behind the door. "Minako! Do you have a boy in that room?" Minako froze in terror - it was her dad!

# # # # #

Usagi stepped out into the hall the next morning and found Chibi-Usa standing there. Sighing slightly, Usagi decided to ask the question. She knew it was more of a tribute to her lost little sister but she had to try. "Chibi-Usa-chan, would you like me to walk you to school?"

Chibi-Usa's heart started to beat faster. She had hoped Usagi would ask that question. 'She DOES care about me...' Chibi-Usa irritatedly brushed aside the pleasant thought and agreed, "Hai, if it'll make you feel better."

The hope that shot up in Usagi's eyes nearly made Chibi-Usa wince in shame. 'How can I do this to her... Why does it have to be like this?'

After breakfast, they headed for school. The two girls walked side by side without holding hands and Usagi was starting to get the feeling that Chibi-Usa wasn't enjoying herself. An attempt to talk was shot down quickly enough by Chibi-Usa saying, "I said I'd walk to school with you, Usagi, not talk to you."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Chibi-Usa regretted what she'd said. 'Why am I trying to spoil it? Usagi is being very nice...' She expected an explosion from Usagi. She wouldn't have faulted her cousin any either. It never came. Usagi simply screwed a neutral expression on her face and remained silent the whole time.

After a while, Chibi-Usa began to skip. Soon, she was ahead of Usagi a few meters acting like the little girl she was and thoroughly enjoying being with the older girl. Then it suddenly dawned on her exactly what she was doing. 'What am I doing? I'm acting like a little kid!' Chibi-Usa thought disgustedly. Stopping, she solemnly walked back towards Usagi. Chibi-Usa noted the smile that had been on the teen's face had slid away.

'She looked so happy for a few moments. I thought she was enjoying herself.' Usagi sighed, 'I guess Chibi-Usa doesn't really want me to walk her to school... Well, I won't ask again then.' She had enjoyed watching Chibi-Usa skipping ahead. It reminded Usagi of herself as a little girl but to see the solemn expression on Chibi-Usa's face was too much.

Chibi-Usa remained beside Usagi the rest of the way to the school all the while fighting the urge to skip and act like a little kid. She would not give Usagi ammunition.

As they reached the entrance to the schoolgrounds, Usagi stated, "I won't be picking you up, Chibi-Usa. You don't seem to like having me around. Don't worry, I won't ask to walk you to school again." With that, the teen started off down the street.

'IIE! Please I want you to pick me up! I want you to ask me again! I've got to tell her.' Chibi-Usa was about to follow her when she heard a teacher call her into the building. 'Now what do I do?' she wondered. She spent the rest of the day miserable.

# # # # #

It was sometime after school the same day when Ikuko first heard the ruckus. 'I have to put a stop to this. If it isn't one extreme, it's another!' she sighed again as she headed for the stairs. 'I wish Kenji were here that way I wouldn't have to act like an ogre all the time...'

She came up the stairs and her suspicions were confirmed. Chibi-Usa was outside Usagi's door and shouting at the top of her lungs.

"Do you enjoy annoying me?" Chibi-Usa gave Usagi's door a kick and shouted, "Come on out, ODANGO ATAMA! All you have to do is give me what I want and I'll leave you alone."

Ikuko waited to see if Usagi would do anything but the door remained shut. 'This can't go on... What if we have to go someplace? Shingo by himself isn't so bad but Usagi's become nearly paralyzed over Chibi-Usa and if she had to baby-sit, that could be bad.'

Walking up to the irate child, she commanded, "Chibi-Usa, go to your room and stand in the corner! I'll be in to deal with you in a few minutes."

Chibi-Usa regarded her aunt and then looked at the door. 'I wanted Usagi to tell me that!' Not wishing to press her luck, she did as she was told.

Ikuko waited until Chibi-Usa was in her room and then knocked on Usagi's door. There was no reply so the mother opened the door and stepped inside. Her daughter was sitting at her desk hunched over doing her homework.

"Chibi-Usa, what did I tell you about my room?" Usagi asked flatly without turning around.

"Usagi-chan, would you go downstairs and start some tea? You and I have to have a little talk," her mother requested.

Usagi whirled around and stared at her mother for several seconds before nodding. Ikuko followed her daughter out of the room and then turned towards Chibi-Usa's room. She waited until Usagi was downstairs before going into Chibi-Usa's room and shutting the door.

The little girl was standing in the corner facing the wall, her shoulders were shaking slightly. She sat down on the bed and asked, "Chibi-Usa, come here please."

Slowly, Chibi-Usa turned around, lowered her head, and shuffled across the floor to her aunt. "Look at me, young lady." It was a moment before the little girl raised her head, two streams of tears were running down her face. "Chibi-Usa-chan... Chibi-Usa, I'm grounding you for the rest of today and all of tomorrow. You're to come straight home from school tomorrow."

A surprised expression spread across her face. She wasn't really sure whether she was relieved that her aunt was only going to ground her or not. Something tugged at her heart and she gave Ikuko a hug while saying, "I promise, Ikuko-mama. I'll try to be nicer to Usagi-chan." 'I don't know why it's so hard to be nice to her.'

The woman returned the hug before saying, "You'll have to stay in your room except for supper." Chibi-Usa nodded. Getting up, Ikuko went to the door and before opening it warned, "Chibi-Usa-chan, this is the second time I had to ground you... I won't do it a third time." With that, she slipped out of the room and down the stairs.

'Gomen Usagi... I wish I knew what was going on. I really did like walking to school with you.' Chibi-Usa hopped up on her bed and picking Rini up, mused, "I wish you could explain it to me... I'm sure Mommy could." That thought brought another tear to Chibi-Usa as a fuzzy memory surfaced, she remembered saying, "'Night Mommy," to Usagi... Now why would she do that?

# # # # #

Ikuko found her daughter waiting with two cups of tea. They sat at the kitchen table for a little while in silence before Ikuko decided she had to start the conversation.

"Usagi-chan, you really want to be Chibi-Usa's 'onee-san', ne?"

Her daughter's reaction was a start of surprise before she lowered her head. 'I don't like hiding things from Mom.' Sighing, Usagi nodded before saying, "Hai, Mom, how did you know?"

"A mother's instinct, Usagi-chan... If you really want to be Chibi-Usa's 'onee-san', you're going to have to take on some responsibilities." Usagi gave her mother a puzzled look so Ikuko continued, "Usagi, as the oldest, your father and I need to know we can trust you. To trust you to watch Chibi-Usa and, to a lesser extent, Shingo. If you can't stop them from doing things that your father or I don't approve of, then we'll have to hire a baby-sitter and you'll lose that money."

"I don't know," Usagi remarked, "Chibi-Usa doesn't respect me."

"She used to, Usagi... When I said taking on responsibility that includes disciplining her for bad behavior. You wouldn't have stood for her actions today or that episode in the living room. You should have and I was really expecting you to handle Chibi-Usa instead of letting her walk over you. She's a child and you're nearly an adult now."

The fourteen year old winced and lowered her head. "I know, Mom... It's just that... Every time she's at fault, I seem to get the blame and wind up in the doghouse. I'm trying to earn her respect." Usagi quirked her mouth. "It doesn't seem to be working and you might think I'm nuts, but I really do want to be Chibi-Usa's 'onee-san'."

Ikuko placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder and said, "Usagi-chan, what you want is natural. You may not show it openly, which is a shame, but you really love that little girl and care about her." Usagi nodded. "I've never known you to give up getting what you want. When you were little, you fought until the bitter end." She smiled at the grin that graced her daughter's face. "Usagi, I want an answer from you. It's very important because it'll determine if your father and I can trust you." The teen seemed slightly uncomfortable but nodded her understanding. "Usagi-chan, if Chibi-Usa misbehaves, are you willing to discipline her?"

"But she'll hate me!" Usagi protested. She was sure of that fact. Why give the spore something else to use against her?

"Usagi-chan, Chibi-Usa might be angry at you but she'll also recognize the boundaries that have been set for acceptable behavior."

"She might as well call me 'Okaa-san' rather than 'Onee-san'," Usagi grumbled.

The mother of two laughed. "Some other time I'll tell you what a hellraiser I was for my Onee-san and what she had to do. You two aren't so different really. So will you, Usagi-chan?"

"Hai!" Usagi agreed. 'Gomen, Chibi-Usa, but Mom's right.'

# # # # #

Hino Rei paced back and forth and grumbled, "Where is that baka? She's late again!"

Minako frowned and said, "Rei-chan, I said Usagi wasn't coming."

"Probably forgot about this meeting," Rei assumed.

"Iie," Minako argued evenly, "I didn't tell her about this meeting." The others regarded Minako in surprise. "I called this meeting to discuss how we're going to get Usagi to fight for her imouto! We all know that Usagi may not admit it but she loves that little girl and the more they pull apart, the more it hurts them both!"

Rei sighed. Minako was right. She missed the good Chibi-Usa's intense loyalty to Usagi. That had helped assuage some of her own guilt, to know that Usagi had a person who would trust her to do what she promised.

"Minako-chan's right. Usagi's pretty shook up over this whole thing. It's like losing a family," Makoto declared. The others looked at her oddly but remained silent. "Mamoru left her, Chibi-Usa loathes her..."

"Iie, she doesn't, Mako-chan," Minako interrupted. "Chibi-Usa was in the park a couple of days ago and broke down. She's very confused. She wants to show Usagi that she loves her but something's stopping her. She isn't old enough to set her... 'pride' aside to get closer. Maybe she's scared that Usagi will reject her."

Rei winced. She knew firsthand what an enemy like pride could be. On more than one occasion, she had to swallow it to cheer Usagi up and although she didn't like to, she did it anyway.

"I agree we need to do something to get them back together. Chibi-Usa does care about Usagi. When she was over at my place, she became very homesick. That aspect of her personality is still within her," Ami put in.

"So what do we do?" the Shinto priestess asked. As the others stared at her, she amended, "It isn't like I care what that baka does but Chibi-Usa actually got her to do her homework and get up on time." 'And make me proud to be their friend.'

Makoto sent a wink Rei's way and turned to the others. "What about a party? Usagi can always be tempted with food. We'll just attract her to someplace and then refuse to let her go until she promises to fight to get Chibi-Usa back."

The others quickly added their agreement to this plan; Minako was plotting a move on her own. She was going to work on two fronts, to double their odds. She'd have to find Chibi-Usa and speak to her without Usagi being around.

# # # # #

"Hi Chibi-Usa-chan!" Minako called. She couldn't believe her luck; Chibi-Usa was just coming out of the school's gate. "I thought you'd be home by now."

Chibi-Usa grimaced and then ran to the perky blonde giving her legs a hug. Minako bent down, lifted the child up into a hug, and started walking towards the Tsukino home. Chibi-Usa had her head buried in Minako's shoulder and seemed to be crying.

"Honey, what's the matter?"

"M-Minako-chan... I... I..." Chibi-Usa couldn't continue and just sobbed some more. Minako waited a little bit, letting the girl set own pace and explain what happened. "I was really mad at Usagi yesterday... She walked me to school and we... I don't know something made Usagi mad and she said she wouldn't ask to walk me to school again!"

"Oh Chibi-Usa-chan, I'm sure Usagi didn't really mean that. So what's got you all upset today?"

"Well... This morning Usagi-chan didn't ask me and I was lonely and wanted to pretend that Usagi was walking me to school so I took Rini." Minako smiled. "One... One of the sensei took Rini away! She said I was too big to need stuffed animals. She took it down to the office. They said Ikuko-mama came by and picked it up. I got detention too."

Minako grimaced. "Why? Because of Rini?"

Chibi-Usa shook her head. "'Cause I didn't have all my homework done." 'When Usagi helped me, I liked doing my homework.' "I'm supposed to go right home from school. I'm grounded," she sniffled. 'I want Onee-san... She'd be very mad at the Sensei... Maybe she could get Sailor Moon to punish the Sensei!' Chibi-Usa giggled at the thought of Sailor Moon yelling at her teacher, 'Or Sailor Venus!'

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better, Chibi-Usa-chan. Remember behind every dark cloud is a gold lining." Chibi-Usa gave Minako a funny look. "I think I have a way you can get Usagi to at least talk to you." the child looked up curiously at perky blonde. "Why don't you give Usagi something nice?"

"Like what?"

"That's for you to decide. If I told you, it'd be from me not from you... If you give Usagi something that you thought of, Chibi-Usa-chan, then she'd see that you really do care about her."

"I don't care about that baka!" Chibi-Usa defiantly stated but she could feel a plan forming in her mind - it was something very special. She'd have to think about it.

'You know I don't believe that. You're worse than Usagi.' "Would you at least think about it, Chibi-Usa-chan?" Minako set Chibi-Usa down and announced, "Chibi-Usa-chan, we're at your place and I need to get home too! Ja ne."

"Arigato, Minako-chan... for walking me home."

Chibi-Usa walked slowly into the house. Her aunt smiled slightly at the child and crouched down to look Chibi-Usa right in the eyes. "I think you want this," her aunt remarked, holding the stuffed pink bunny out to her.

The little girl's eyes widened and she lovingly reached out and snuggled it close to her chest. She regarded her aunt and apologized, "Gomen nasai, Ikuko-mama. I didn't mean to get into trouble."

Ikuko smiled and decided, "Chibi-Usa-chan, you just earned a reprieve. You're not grounded anymore."

"Nani?" asked the shocked child, "I'm not grounded?"

"Iie... you took something that came from your onee-san. You care about her very much and you were willing to take Rini with you even though it was against school rules."

"I don't understand, Ikuko-mama," Chibi-Usa replied. 'Why would she not be mad at me for breaking the rules?' She had followed a little of what her aunt had said but had not been able to make much sense of it.

"Do you love Rini?" Chibi-Usa nodded vigorously. "I think you love somebody else in this house, Chibi-Usa-chan, and your behavior hasn't show them that love."

With that, Ikuko got up and walked towards the table. "Now go wash up, Chibi-Usa-chan."

'I understand now, Ikuko-mama. Arigato.' Happily, Chibi-Usa skipped out of the room. She had a great plan of what to give Usagi. Ikuko smiled. Now if only she could do that with Shingo, it would make things so much easier!

# # # # #

Usagi was pulled in by Makoto who opened the door. "You're here!" Makoto declared, "Good, you can help us eat!"

"Nani? I thought this was a Sailor Senshi meeting?" Usagi questioned; that's what Luna had told her. She hadn't figured out why they were holding it at Makoto's apartment though. Then she walked into the main room and found the dining table and one of the side tables laden down with a large lunch of almost every dish she liked. "Wow! Are you having a party? Ah... Mako-chan, why did you just lock and bolt your door?"

"It is a party, Usagi-chan. A party to plan how to get your imouto back!" Minako happily announced.

"Mina! I told you that I did NOT want that spore as my imouto!" Usagi said firmly and started to put her coat back on.

"None of us believe that, Usagi-chan. So we're going to stay here, eat, have fun, and convince you to fight to get your imouto back," Minako stated confidently and helped Makoto drag Usagi's coat off. "Rei-chan, I'll get you some stuff in a second if you'd like to take your position."

Usagi looked over and saw Rei place a chair in front of the door and sit down while glaring at Usagi. 'I hope she doesn't press the issue,' the brunette thought but she didn't have anything to worry about. Once Makoto had popped a juicy morsel into Usagi's mouth, the girl with the endless hunger was hooked.

'Minna... Arigato,' Usagi thought.

# # # # #

Chibi-Usa hesitated; Usagi wasn't home. She remembered what Usagi had said would happen if she went into Usagi's room. 'I don't care. She can spank me if she wants but I think she'll be very pleased with my present and won't want to.' With that logic in place, the little girl slipped into Usagi's room followed by Luna-P. Once in, she wandered over to the wall and called out, "Luna-P HENGE! Give me painting supplies, kawaii coveralls, and a painter's cap!"

With a pink flash of smoke, Chibi-Usa was standing on a drop cloth, wearing a pink set of jeans coveralls and a pink painter's cap. She put Rini in a place where it wouldn't get spattered but she could see it. Picking up one of the brushes, she opened the first can of paint and wrinkled her nose. 'Stinky stuff... Onee-san won't like it.' Walking over to the window, Chibi-Usa opened it and then turned back to her work. She had to hurry. No telling when Usagi would be back.

# # # # #

"All right, all right, I give!" Usagi declared after three hours of partying, "Minna-san, I give! I'll think something up."

"We want to hear it!" Rei demanded. She had been enjoying the party as much as anyone else and was also running on a sugar high at the moment so she wasn't her usual self. "Come on, Usagi-chan. Tell us what you're going to do or I ain't letting you out."

"Mako-chan, what did you put in that one cake?" Ami asked softly. The normally fiery priestess was acting strangely to say the least.

"Nothing really... and don't even think I put liquor in that cake!"

"Well she's certainly acting weird," Ami observed, "Maybe it's the sugar."

"Well she's eaten nearly the entire thing and there were four cups in it." Makoto admitted. "A sugar buzz will do that to some people."

"I'll take her to the park!" Usagi suddenly declared, "I'll take her to the park and get her some ice cream!"

The others smiled, their plan had worked... Too bad they didn't know what Chibi-Usa was doing.

# # # # #

"I'm back!" Usagi called out.

"Hello Usagi-chan. I hope you have room for a big supper," her mother teased. The girls had told her exactly what they had planned to do. Usagi flushed a bright red before nodding. "Good... Well, I see you came up with an idea."

"Hai, I'm going to ask her if she'd like to go to the park for some ice cream."

"That's good. She's been upstairs all day..."

"I'll go up right now and ask her, Mom," Usagi declared and immediately headed for the stairs. The first indication that something was wrong was the fumes... Something smelled bad. Usagi traced the smell coming from her room. 'What on earth?' she thought as she opened up the door; and cried out at what she saw.

Chibi-Usa was standing by the bed in pink paint-spattered coveralls and a matching painter's cap admiring her work. The work consisted of a representation of Rini. It was about four feet high and a little over two feet wide. The detail was rather good and Chibi-Usa seemed quite pleased with herself.

The girl upon hearing the noise turned around and commented, "Usagi-chan, you should have knocked! I was going to surprise you with it."

Usagi's jaw opened and shut several times before her voice came out in full vocal rage, "You're in my room! YOU'RE IN MY ROOM AND YOU PAINTED MY WALL!"

"But Usagi-chan... I thought you'd like it... I wanted to thank you for getting me Rini. She's very special to me," Chibi-Usa tried to explain. 'Why's Onee-san turning red?'

"You painted my wall!" Usagi's anger grew, "How could you do such a thing? WHAT DID I SAY WOULD HAPPEN IF I CAUGHT YOU IN MY ROOM AGAIN?"

"But Usagi-chan, I... This was a present. I didn't mean to be bad. I thought you'd like it!" Chibi-Usa protested and started to back up in fear. 'Nothing I do is any good!' Tears started to form on Chibi-Usa's face as the pent up emotions took over.

"You rotten little spore! All you do is torment me! Why couldn't you just stay where your mother was?"

Chibi-Usa's anger piqued and she yelled, "ONEE-SAN, I LOVE YOU! I wanted my onee-san to help me! Mommy isn't here and I'm so confused and I just... I just..." With a sob, Chibi-Usa grabbed Rini, ran past the enraged teen, and into her room slamming the door behind her.

Usagi was stunned. "Onee-san?" Usagi mouthed those words, "Onee-san!" 'She called me Onee-san...'

"Usagi, what's going on up here... And what's that smell?" Ikuko demanded.

"Mom, I'll explain in a bit... Could you go downstairs, please? I have to talk with MY IMOUTO." The words cascaded over Usagi like a tsunami and she started to cry. Her mother nodded and headed back downstairs. Slowly Usagi made her way to Chibi-Usa's room and opened the door.

The child was lying on her bed. She had Rini in a bear hug and was crying into her pillow. Usagi softly walked over to the bed and put a hand on the girl's back. "Ikuko-mama... Gomen Ikuko-mama, I tried!" Chibi-Usa sobbed out.

"Imouto?" Usagi called softly.

There were a couple more sobs before Chibi-Usa lifted her head and looked up to find Usagi crying as well. Usagi gathered the child into a hug and fell to her knees on the floor.

"Oh Imouto... I've missed you so much!" Usagi cried. "I couldn't stand being without your love. When I thought I lost you... I felt so alone!"

Chibi-Usa couldn't believe it. "Onee-san!" she replied and cried into Usagi's shoulder clinging on for dear life. 'Onee-san... You'll help me, ne Onee-san?'

They stayed in that hug for a long time each seeking the other's warmth and comfort for all the aches that had built up over the past few weeks. "Imouto... I love you very much. I'm very sorry for yelling at you. I know your mother's in trouble and when Rubeus is defeated, I will give you the Ginzuishou. I promise."

Chibi-Usa having run dry of tears felt very secure in Usagi's hug and she seconded, "I... I love you too, Usagi-chan. I wanted to surprise you with a present. Rini means a lot to me and I pretended it was you." Chibi-Usa sniffled a little and raised Rini up to show her.

"I know, honey," Usagi acknowledged as she got up and sat on the bed. Chibi-Usa curled up in her lap. "I know... I understand what you wanted to do. Imouto..." Raising Chibi-Usa's chin, Usagi said, "Imouto, I'm gonna have to tell Mom. She won't like that you painted on my wall. She'll understand that you wanted to give me a present but she'll still be very upset. We'll have to buy paint to cover up Rini."

Chibi-Usa's face fell. "You don't like it?" she whispered out.

The teen lifted Chibi-Usa up so the little girl was looking right into Usagi's eyes. "Imouto, I like it. I love the fact that you wanted to get me a present but Mom won't approve." Giving Chibi-Usa another hug, she stood the child on the floor and said, "I have to go tell Mom what's happened."

"Do you want me to stand in the corner, Onee-san?" Chibi-Usa wondered. She was hugging Rini but not as tightly.

"Would you feel better?" Usagi asked. 'Now where'd that come from?'

"Hai," Chibi-Usa chirped and headed towards the corner. Usagi missed the smile on the little girl's face as her Onee-san left the room. 'Onee-san, you're very much like my mommy... She always asked me that question, I wonder why?' Chibi-Usa's smile broadened slightly. "Rini, I have a big sister!" Chibi-Usa stated with confidence.

# # # # #

Ikuko's features were rather grim. "Usagi-chan... Are you sure you want to handle this?"

Usagi fidgeted before saying, "Okaa-san, you said if I really wanted to take on being Chibi-Usa's onee-san, I'd have to be responsible." 'Well, this is where our new relationship gets put to the test.'

Her mother nodded. "All right, Usagi-chan, I'm going to go buy some paint for that wall. We'll have to wait until the first paint to dry though. I don't think you should sleep in that room tonight." Ikuko smiled. 'Well, what can it hurt?' "I think maybe you could talk your 'imouto' into sharing her bed."

Usagi smiled slightly. "Hai... Ah Mom, are you sure you won't change your mind?" She tried to plead for leniency for Chibi-Usa one last time.

"Gomen Usagi, you know what I said and she knows what I said." With that, Ikuko left the house.

Usagi slowly turned and walked up the stairs. 'Now I know what the guys that are going to cut off people's heads feel like before they do it.'

# # # # #

Walking into the room, Usagi sat down on the bed and requested, "Imouto, could you come here please?" Chibi-Usa stepped out of the corner and walked over to Usagi, head held high. "Imouto, what say we go to the park and get some ice cream? We have to wait for the paint to dry."

"Really?" Chibi-Usa asked, "I didn't think Ikuko-mama would let us."

"She doesn't know," Usagi admitted. "I was gonna ask you before I caught you in my room." Usagi lowered her eyes a little. "Could... Could I sleep in your bed tonight?"

Chibi-Usa giggled. "That'll be fun... Will you read me a story?"

"If you'll speak to me," Usagi mumbled out.

"Nani?" Chibi-Usa asked, 'Why isn't Onee-san looking at me?'

"Imouto... Chibi-Usa-chan... I... I have to..." Usagi trailed off and got up. 'Mom was right. I can't do this.' A little hand caught Usagi's hand and stopped her from leaving the room. Looking down, Usagi peered into the child's eyes that were completely trusting and Usagi couldn't believe the words that Chibi-Usa spoke.

"You have to spank me, ne?" Chibi-Usa asked. Usagi tried to find a note of hatred but all she found was love. The teen couldn't talk; she was having trouble breathing. She felt like she was going to cry again, so close to the goal and then she fell short. Chibi-Usa placed Rini carefully on the bed and then reached up with both arms. Usagi bent down thinking this was a good-bye hug and picked the child up. "Onee-san," Chibi-Usa began seriously, "I love Mommy very much, and she spanks me when I'm bad..." Wrapping her little arms around Usagi's neck, Chibi-Usa said four little words...

"I love you... Onee-san."

The End of Chibi-Usa Times Two

# # #

Authors' Afterwords:

Firstly to Will, a good friend and co-author. He is certainly a necessary part to my writing. I'm finding that longer works require someone I can talk and rant to. Will does this while being too humble for his one good in my opinion. As I said before, I am finding that my longer works require his input even as a co-plotter. I am a taskmaster sometimes. No sooner had a full week passed than Will and I was hard at work on our next project.

Thanks should also go to our betareaders. In alphabetical order, they are: Allan, Ethan, Greywolf, and Jendra. These people fill a very necessary role. We get a lot of information from them about the plot and what works, what doesn't, and what needs improvement.

As thanks to our "official" story artists: Chibi-Mars and Jacy. Please come and visit the Shoujo Fiction site and view their artwork.

Lastly but certainly not least, you the reader. You've suffered through my "restrained" style of writing and seem to be sticking with me... Especially those people on my distribution list. Those people deserve some extra kudos; they've stuck with me since "Tales of Younger Jupiter" and seem to be rather determined at least to see the sequel.

That leads me into my next topic. My next work of fanfiction is the long awaited, and in some cases demanded, sequel to "Tales of Younger Jupiter". The sequel's name is "Tales of Younger Venus" (completed in 1997) and no, I will not give away plots!

How did this story come about? That is a long and somewhat convoluted process that I am at a loss to describe. I can't even tell you where this story idea came from. The only contrived swipe I took was at the NA version of SM... Well there was one other one, and that was Sir Flop-alot, that was directed towards the famous knight. There were others in there, I'm sure of it.

Well enough of me rambling, thanks for reading.

Douglas Helm AKA Candle Light Author

# # #

Wait a second, Doug, I remember how we came up with the original concept for C-Ux2. ;) It was a certain picture of two Chibi-Usas mirror images of each other that someone created that you sent me. I asked you what if there really were two of them? It was decided that they be nothing like each other and Usagi would be the cause. Somehow, a concept emerged, then an outline, and then a story, which I thank all of you for taking your time to read.

My friend, Doug, is really a great guy to put up with my ramblings and doing most of the site administration for Shoujo Fiction. He works very quickly and I am constantly amazed by the excellent quality of the raw copy that he sends me. It's a wonderful thing to throw ideas back and forth and then see those ideas materialize on the screen. Thanks Doug for continuing our collaboration on our next project "Tales of Younger Venus" (completed in 1997) and editing/alphareading "Adventures of the Chibi-Scouts". The future continues to look bright...

"Tuxedo" Will Wolfshohl

Shoujo Fiction™ and the Shoujo Fiction™ logo are a Trademark of Douglas Helm and Will Wolfshohl. Copyrighted ©2002-2003, All Rights Reserved.