A/N: I'm taking a bit of a break from my other stories. At least for today. Tomorrow I will be updating some more. Of course, my internet had gone down so it gave me some extra time to get chapters written. And I also wanted to get a few one-shot projects done. Here is one of them. It's in third person. I don't normally do that, but what the hell. I decided to give it a shot.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sailor Moon! We all know that.

ooOoo

NUMB

There were a few times in life that Mina had felt like this, but never had the pain within her soul been this bad. It was a little mind blowing on how much one could suffer and still be able to go about life. However, she had a different perspective on things. Not only that, but she changed just the tiniest little bit. Instead of going out shopping or hanging out at the Arcade like she used to do, now the Venus Scout stayed more at home working on homework or working on some sketches that she had started to create some time ago. It was a little weird seeing her go through this change. Most of all, no one knew what the real cause of is was…neither did Mina to tell you the truth. She thought that after that last battle with the Dark Moon kingdom that she was just tired. Worn out.

But that wasn't the case at all.

Only problem was…she didn't rightly know what it was that was bothering her to such a degree. There were days when she found it hard to even get out of bed in the mornings. Whatever was the cause of this?

Then there were times when she felt nothing at all. Those were days that seemed to be so much better for her. Not really as she went around almost like a zombie, but she wasn't having emotional breakdowns every time someone tried talking to her. It had many of her friends worried. Hell, in some dark corner of her mind it even had her freaked out. She couldn't voice it though. Something deep inside told her to not say anything, while another part insisted that she tell someone. But tell them what exactly?

Ah, more questions than answers it seems.

All she could do was hope that whatever it was that was crushing her soul would leave, but somewhere a little voice told her that that was never going to happen. Another question was being why? And again, there was no answer to give. However, some part of her couldn't help but think that there was a reason. Finding the answer though…that reason…was not going to be easy. It would mean having to ask someone close to her if they felt that pain as well.

Mina shook her head, staring out the window of her bedroom, trying her hardest to ignore that numb feeling down inside the pit of her stomach. She could just feel it reaching up towards her heart and that scared her more than anything else in the world ever could. It was strange. Very, very strange. How could she get rid of or stop that which she had no idea of where it even came from?

Sighing, she allowed her mind to drift just a little bit to ignore the biting sting inside her chest, the heavy feeling coming on a little stronger than it usually would. Just what in the hell was going on with her?

"Have you ever thought about asking one of the others?" Artemis inquired, the white cat sitting next to his owner, looking at her with barely concealed worry.

Again, she sighed. "Not really."

"Well, why not?"

Another question. "Because…I'm not sure just how to inquire about it without worrying them. If I did manage to ask and they never have that'll just make things worse in the long run."

Artemis gave her another look. "So you're just going to let yourself suffer in silence?"

Mina nods. "It's be better than letting everyone else see."

Artemis shook his head, knowing that Mina wasn't fooling anyone though she believed that the others did not notice that something was horribly wrong. Unfortunately, they had no idea how to approach her with the subject for fear that she would lash out at them. It's happened before.

"You're not doing yourself any good by keeping it all bottled up," he says after a few more minutes of silence.

"Maybe."

It was incredibly heartbreaking to hear the sorrow within her voice. It had never sounded like that…until recently. The while cat had no idea how to deal with this. He had never been thrown into this kind of situation—that he could remember anyway. There just had to be something that could be done to get her out of this funk that she seemed to be in. Alas though, he could think of nothing. It was incredibly unfair that he could do nothing to help. This feeling of helplessness just bothered Artemis beyond the point of control.

"Mina…" he tried again.

Mina shook her head. "Just leave it be, Artemis." She got up from where she was perched upon the window, turning away from the cat's worried gaze and left the room. She wanted to be alone for awhile and that couldn't be accomplished if she was being watched all the time. Right now, nothing mattered anymore. Not all the fighting or battles that she and her friends had won. School, shopping, boys…none of it mattered. Nothing brought her any feeling whatsoever. That was perhaps the saddest thing of all—at last it looked like the forces of darkness had succeeded in at least bringing one of the Scouts down.

The Venus Scout felt nothing…

Finally, after everything that she had gone through. All the pain, torture, adventure—everything. She was numb.

ooOoo

Um…I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this. But it is something that came to me and for some odd reason I just couldn't help but write it. It's a little sadder than what I usually do as I like to stick to romance and humor. However, I do like branching out and trying different things. This happened to be one of them. Kinda short for a one-shot, but it's still good. At least, I think it is. But let me know what you all think. ^-^