Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own any of the characters portrayed therein. I do, however, own The Chronicles of Star Peacefire, as well as all the characters contained in said saga, including, but not limited to, Star, Tina, Jonathon, Max and Darien Brooks, not to be confused with Darien/Tuxedo Mask, who is owned under Sailor Moon. In this story, I'll be using the English/Cartoon Network character names, as those are the only ones I'm truly familiar with.

Sailor Moon: A New Star

Chapter I

Ninmast

"Hey, Meatball Head, what are you doing out of your room?"

Serena froze at the angry voice, turning to look over at the burly nurse, all forearms and body hair, hard to believe the ugly woman really was a woman. "Uh, I'm just going to the bathroom, that's all! Yup! Just the bathroom! Nothing crazy happening here! Just hitting the can before I hit the sack!"

The nurse scowled, crossing those large arms over her chest. "Then hurry up, Blondie. You've got five minutes, and then I'm dragging you back to your room."

What a lousy situation, Serena thought to herself as she made her way down the hall. She was sent to this mental institution several months back when her mother caught her talking to Luna. Understandably, the woman freaked and immediately shipped her off to this nut house, where she had to put up with Miss He-Nurse.

And communal bathrooms, she mentally added as she looked ahead to the door at the end of the hall. "Aww … I'm supposed to be a princess saving the world with my handsome prince, not locked up in a mental institution like some sort of looney … I'll bet Rini and Raye are just laughing it all up … huh?" She stopped as a sudden heat hit her, like she walked in front of a furnace. She was in front of one of the patient rooms, but that kind of heat wasn't the kind the hospital would set the dials to. Shooting a glance to see the nurse bent over some papers, she pushed the cracked door open and stepped inside.

Inside, the heat was even worse. She could feel herself start to sweat, and she was surprised to find someone actually inside – a girl probably a couple years older than her. She was stretched out on the bed, apparently asleep as she thrashed as if from nightmares. She was of a reasonably respectable height, fair, flushed skin, and pink, very long hair, similar in length to Mina's. Her limbs were bound to the bed by metal rings welded to the frame, something in her three months Serena had never seen them do to anyone, but still the bed shook as the girl thrashed, her arms tensing and rippling with the muscular effort of whatever she was struggling against. Red wisps of smoke or fog seemed to radiate from her body, stretching out to fill the room. This was the heat, and it was coming from this girl's body.

Serena stared at the girl's face as she stepped toward her, watching it clench and hardly daring to guess if it was in terror, pain or struggle. She reached out for the girl's arm and stopped as she felt her chest begin to glow as the Millennium Crystal she was bound with began to respond to the energies around her. It glowed brightly for a moment before she clasped her hand over it, but something had changed. It took her a moment to place it. The room was cooling down. It was still hot, but it was definitely cooling down, and the girl had began to struggle less and less until she settled down completely, her limbs ceasing their struggles against their metal bindings as her face and breathing relaxed into some semblance of normal, peaceful sleep.

"Did I do that?" Serena began to step backwards toward the door when a heavy hand came down on her shoulder and the voice of the nurse screeched in her ears.

"Do what, Meatball Head? You wet your pants when you missed the bathroom?"

The blonde heroine seethed silently. Oh, how she'd like to share a few words with the good nurse, but that only ended in a night of tranquilizers and the padded room used for solitary. "No, I didn't wet my pants. I'm not three, you know …"

The woman practically picked her up by the shoulder, the grip on which seemed to tighten painfully, and the girl could swear her feet actually left the ground as the nurse pulled her out of the room, shutting the door behind her. "Get back to your room, Blondie. I know you don't want me to get the tranq case."

Serena scowled, but turned and went back to her room, shutting the door behind her before getting under the covers and putting her head down on the stiff, institution brand pillow. She sighed in frustration at the woman, but her thoughts went back to the pink girl. Who was she, and what was it that had happened in there?