Author's Note: This is a theme challenge from the "Hostile Takeover" forum. The wonderful modling, Kat, should be applauded for making such a fun event. The theme is "hope" so I chose to do a slight crossover of Digimon and Sailor Moon with an idea of hopelessness and hope.

I haven't written anything since October of 2015 so I'm pretty rusty, to be honest. My muse has finally woken up from it's slumber with something hopefully enjoyable.

Thanks for reading. Please review and show some love, if you're feeling kind.

Let me know if I should make this into a full multi-chapter story.

Story: Hopelessly Hopeful

Between these ash-gray walls and the desolate world outside, Usagi still felt hopeful. The sixteen year old girl screamed inside and cried out for the lost souls, the despair felt inside her bones, but the soldier of light fought against given up, triumphed over evil and was never going to let this place she loved be shattered with everyone's hopes and dreams.

The chosen children were outside, and they were fighting a losing fight. She'd been there to watch one by one, her friends were overtaken. She'd seen parents plead for their children's lives and watched as her senshi sacrificed themselves to allow her to go into her ultimate form – only for it to backfire. The digidestined were supposed to be getting peoples into pods to escape the oncoming destruction, but with the senshi unable to slow their enemy down, they were forced to fight.

Tears streamed down Usagi's face, her cerulean blue eyes appeared to be at a loss. Thoughts caused her to feel like she was being pushed up against a wall, and every side of the ash-grayed walls felt as if they were closing in on her. Would she ever get out of this place? Even if she did, could she actually help the senshi and the chosen children?

'It's your fault!' She could remember the tear-stained face of the mother who'd lost everything screaming at the top of her lungs, coughing up blood, and her eyes red with pain. 'You could've saved them! You coulda but ya didn't! My b-bay-baby. …' Usagi could remember the woman's lips trembling as she pulled a child up into her arms from the rumble, her clothes dirty, ripped and torn. The hopelessness in her eyes… she couldn't forget them. The woman whispered into her child's ear, but it was obvious even to Usagi that the child was gone. The little one's skin was pale, a fairly different shade than those of the living. 'M-my baby is dead because you didn't even try!' Usagi could remember the child slumped over in her mother's arms, her eyes slack with a horrified expression; she could only assume it was the child's final emotions before her life came to an end.

The sad part was that Usagi couldn't argue her point. The woman was correct; it was Usagi's weakness that allowed the darkness to become so strong. Her will had become weak, and her heart sullied by watching the hopeless situation, and her strength sapped by her lack of resolve. They'd taken away her family, tortured them, and forced her to watch. The silver crystal was only as strong as the user's heart, and she'd might as well have had heart failure. The senshi understood and tried to fight with all their might, their hearts full of hope and shining a beacon of light upon the civilians of Tokyo.

The sad smile on Ami's face, the determined fist of Jupiter, Rei's fight against her visions of a world destroyed, and Minako's vigilance to keep moving forward no matter what flashed through Usagi's mind. She suddenly remembered hearing Yagami Taichi say, 'Even if it's less than one percent chance of us winning, there's still a better chance if we actually try.' The look in his eyes said that he wasn't speaking from some naivety, nor did he speak as a man who'd completely lost it, no, he spoke like someone determined to change the future. He had hope, and he could see the light. Taichi could see the light that Usagi was struggling to see so clearly. It was within his grasps.

Still, she felt hopeful. Usagi could feel the strength of her friends outside, the heartfelt prayers of the world asking for a savior, and she felt herself stand up and her eyes focused on the ash-gray walls and what they stood for. For all the ferocity, the animosity, all the pain she felt inside, every dull notion that her life was over, the ashen colored walls mocked her.

"Mommy…" Usagi turned to her left and saw a child holding his mother's hand, smiling despite the bloody situation they were in. "Sailor Moon is here. We're gonna be alright." The mother nodded and scurried over to the pretty soldier in a sailor suit. "Right, Mommy?"

The mother said nothing but stared at Sailor Moon with hopeful eyes. She believed but was scared, holding the little boy tightly, prepared to protect him from the dark world outside.

For a moment, Usagi froze. She'd been there many times before. Scared out of her mind, knowing everything could go wrong and being prepared to sacrifice her life for her friends and family. Tears welled up, and she could suddenly see her friends' faces fighting on her behalf and remembered that even if she lost some of her family, they were still there. This world was still standing. This mother would still fight.

"Hey kid," Sailor Moon said with a smile, "Thanks. We're going to beat this." Hand extended to the sky, a wand appeared in her hands. Even if it costs her life, she would protect this world. She would give that mother and everyone else a reason to keep having hope and to keep living.

She would be a beacon of hope-so that even if she couldn't win, that hope would spark a strength in the hearts of people all around that world that could defeat this darkness and bring in tomorrow's morning light.