"Alright class, today we are staring on a group project," the teacher announced to a chorus of groans from the class. Usagi scowled over her book at the teacher. Really? A school project? She sighed and hit her forehead against the desk, then winced. She'd forgotten that there were splinters there. Rubbing her forehead as she looked back up, she realized that the teacher had asked her something.

"Usagi, do you have a partner for the project?" the teacher asked. They had been given the past few minutes to choose a partner. Shaking her head, feeling a bit wary, Usagi said no. The teacher sighed and looked around. "There, Hana doesn't have a partner. You two are partners now. Scoot." Usagi sighed and slowly stood up, walkng over to Hana's desk.

"Hi... I'm Usagi... What do you wanna do for the project?" she asked, her tone subdued.

Hana was a very quiet girl who seemed shy of just about everyone. In the entire time they had been in class together she'd said maybe three words to Usagi that hadn't been in response to a greeting directed to her or the class as a whole. She blushed looking down. "U-um... well... since we have to report on a countries culture... maybe... um... America... or something?" she got quieter and quieter as she spoke, barely whispering by the time she said 'or something'. "S-sorry you got stuck with me..."

Sensing that Hana seemed to be upset by what Usagi had said, Usagi immediately knelt by her.

"Oh dear, honey, I'm not mad at you..." she said softly. "I'm just stressed. My parents said that they had had something important to tell me, and now they're missing." Sighing again, she nodded. "And I like your idea of America. Crystal Tokyo might be the center of all things, but America was important once, a long time ago."

Hana looked worried. "Your parents are missing? That's terrible. We- I'll help as much as I can with the project- one less thing for you to stress about," she told her. Then with a very small shy smile she added. "I use to live in America so I know a lot first hand from that." She reached up and gently twirled a bit of her curly fushia hair.

Usagi now showed the first interest she'd shown all day. Sitting beside Hana, she took the other girl's hands in her own.

"You used to live in America? Tell me what it was like!" she exclaimed. "I've lived in Crystal Tokyo all my life! Something about my own safety or something like that. I can never remember. But anyways. Was it cool? Amazing?" She chattered on, excited about making a friend.

It took a while but by the end of class Hana had started talking more freely. She also started to use more expressions. Hana even got Usagi to laugh at her disbelief at an American custom. "No, it's true! They really do that. It took me forever to get used to it when I first moved there." She'd revealed that while she'd been born in Crystal Tokyo, her family had moved to California when she was 5. She'd only moved back to Crystal Tokyo last year. The bell rang and she jumped slightly. "Class is over already?" she asked, bewildered.

"That's okay, it's lunchtime, so we can still talk," Usagi said happily. She stood and took Hana's hand, starting towards the courtyard where she usually ate lunch. Waiting for her was a little black cat, a gold moon on the cat's forehead. "Luna! What are you doing here?" she asked indignantly. "I thought I told you to keep a lookout for Mom and Dad."

There were a few cats around the city that had those marks. They were considered very important for some reason. Hana knelt down. "Is this your kitty?" she asked, offering her hand to Luna.

"Yes, Luna is mine." Usagi smiled as Luna purred and rubbed up against Hana. "She seems to like you alot," she added. "I'm glad. Usually Luna chases away people who are false. You are genuine!" She grinned and gave Hana a hug. "I'm so glad that we're friends."

Hana looked like she might start to cry. "You- you want to be friends with me?" she managed to choke out. People didn't tend to take to her so quickly. She didn't really have many friends. People usually gave up on being friends with her because she didn't talk much.

"Sure! Why not? I like you, and you're really the first person I've ever been able to get along so well with," Usagi said with a smile. She let go of Hana and pulled out her lunch, then sat. Luna jumped into her lap and curled up, and Usagi patted the ground beside her, indicating that Hana should sit down.

Hana flopped down beside her, staring in wide eyed wonder. She had a friend...

After a minute it finally sunk fully in and she smiled with a shy delight, pulling out her own lunch. They chatted pretty much the whole time, comparing likes and dislikes.

The rest of the day passed pretty quickly as they found out that they were together in each of their classes. At the end of the day though, they parted ways, and Usagi made her way home to her quiet house. Sighing as she closed the door behind her, she wondered once again what had happened to her parents. Luna meowed from her bedroom doorway and Usagi slipped off her shoes, making her way to her room. Reaching down to scratch Luna lightly behind her ears, Usagi sighed again and flopped onto her bed. Falling asleep instantly, she began to have nightmares.

Hana lived with her mother and little brother. So when she got home she made dinner, since her mother worked late at the hospital, it was up to her to take care of her brother until their mom got home.

Somehow, Usagi had gotten comfortably underneath the covers at some point in the night. In the middle of the night, she sat up and opened her eyes. They were glowing slightly, and she turned to Luna. Luna meowed, not sure if Usagi was quite awake or not. A silver crescent moon symbol began to glow on her forehead, but as it faded, her eyes closed, and she crumpled back against her bed, fast asleep once again. Or so Luna thought.

The next morning, Usagi couldn't be woken, and thus, she was not at school. Something had happened in the night, and it hadn't been good. Luna found herself racing to the school, trying to find Hana amongst all the girls. She knew that the girl was a Senshi, though which one, she didn't know yet. She already knew that Usagi was Sailor Moon, but since Usagi was out for the count at the moment, Sailor Moon wouldn't be able to be woken first.

Hana saw Luna before Luna saw her. "Hey Luna. Where's your Mistress huh? She's not at school today," she told the cat quietly, reaching down to pet her. She'd been disappointed she didn't ask for her number yesterday.

Instead of purring like she had the day before, Luna sat down, curling her tail about her feet.

"Hana, this is important. I must ask that you don't scream or call attention to us, do you understand?" the cat asked, looking intently into Hana's eyes.

Hana paled and stared at the cat. "D-did you just talk?" she squeaked.

Luna sighed and then nodded.

"I did. Listen Hana, this is important, can you calm down?" she asked. "Usagi is... I don't know. I can't wake her up. I don't know why. Hana, I need to awaken you as a Senshi. Please. I need your help."

Hearing that Usagi wasn't waking up got a worried look to cross her face, but then it became confused. "As a what? What are you talking about?" she asked, glancing around. Thankfully most everyone was ignoring her as usual. So no rumors of how she talks to cat were likely to start.

Sighing, Luna just closed her eyes and raised her head. The crescent on her head began to glow as she opened her eyes, and a beam of light shot from the moon on her forehead to hit Hana's forehead. Seconds later, Jupiter's symbol shone there, and Luna was talking in Hana's mind.

"A Senshi is a soldier that protects peace, love, and justice in the Earth Kingdom and the Moon Kingdom. You are a daughter of the Moon Kingdom, sent down to Earth to live a normal life until the time comes that you are needed. You are needed Sailor Jupiter. Usagi needs your help. I think something terrible happened last night, and you are the first of the Senshi that I need to awaken. Please Hana." Luna's mental tone shivered with the plea of help that she was issuing. "Please help me to save Usagi. She is more important than you can imagine."

"W-well if it will help Usagi-chan... I'll do what I can," she answered, sounding unsure. "What do I need to do to help?"

"First, reach into your pocket. There should be a transforming pen there now that I've awoken your power," Luna said, this time, speaking aloud. "Once you have, hold it up and say 'Jupiter Power Make Up!'"

"Eh? R-right here?" She looked around. She'd be taken as a psycho if she did that... But she reached into her pocket, and sure enough, there was a weird pen there. She stood up and ran. Despite her timid personality she was athletic. She found an empty storage room and slipped inside, shutting the door once Luna was in. "Like this?" she asked, holding up the pen. "Jupiter Power Make Up!"

Luna started purring as she watched the girl transform. Sailor Jupiter, here!

"Perfect," Luna said happily, rubbing up against Jupiter's boots. "Now, follow me to Usagi's house."

Hana- or rather Sailor Jupiter looked down at her attire in stunned awe. Something had really happened. Something had really happened? How- 'No time to think about this now Hana! You have to go help your friend!' She slapped her own cheeks and then nodded. "Right. Lead the way Luna," she told the cat- though suddenly wasn't sure she'd be able to. Was she going to have to run through the city looking like this? "Maybe.. an unpopulated route?"

Luna nodded.

"Of course dear." Jumping and opening the door, Luna lead the way to Usagi's house through back alleys, tugging Jupiter out into the street when there were no alleys to take. Opening the door to Usagi's house, Luna lead Jupiter inside. "All you need to do is put a hand on her forehead and give her a tiny bit of your power," Luna said after leading her to Usagi's room. Usagi was sitting up, her eyes open and glowing, staring at the wall. Luna meowed plaintively, going to Usagi and pushing her down, frantically making sure that the silver crescent moon symbol wasn't showing. "Please hurry Jupiter!"

"I- How do I give her my power?" she asked, resting a hand on her friends forehead. 'Usagi is going to think I'm crazy when she wakes up. IF she wakes up...'

A small glow surrounded Jupiter's hand as she put it on Usagi's head. A warm sensation filled the two of them, and Usagi suddenly woke, gasping. She looked at Hana, bewildered and confused.

"Usagi-chan!" Hana exclaimed hugging her friend. "I'm so glad! Luna came and found me! She-" she halted. Did... did Usagi-chan know that Luna talked? Or was that just Hana that could hear it?

"Luna! You actually talked to Hana too? I'm jealous. She gets a cool new outfit and everything..." Usagi pouted, and Luna sighed, shaking her head. Jumping up into the air and doing a little somersault, she made a broach appear, circular and pink, and to fall onto the bed.

"Say Moon Prism Power Make Up!" Luna said. Usagi nodded and picked up the broach, holding it above her head and shouting the words. She transformed and stood there, looking at herself, slightly shocked. Her heart-shaped buns had ruby orbs on them, and she was dressed in a similar looking outfit to Jupiter, only hers was colored differently. "You are Sailor Moon, leader of a team of Senshi that protect justice, love, and peace. We need to find the others, and to figure out what is going on. Something wrong happened last night to make you unable to be woken this morning. I have a feeling that it has something to do with your parents going missing as well." Usagi nodded. "But for now, we need to get you guys to school."

"School!" Usagi gasped, starting to run around her room as her transformation came undone. She gathered all her books and got into her uniform quickly, then turned to Hana. "Come on Hana, let's go!"

Hana stared at her friend, trying to put a puzzle together. She accepted it all so easily. She didn't question a thing about it. Was it because she had faith in Luna's words? Or was it just that overflowing well of confidence she seemed to have? Hana's own transformation came undone and she nodded mutely, trying to make her own mind accept what was being told to her, trying to follow the example of her friend.

Usagi dashed out the front door of her house, not even stopping to lock it. Luna locked it after they had left, and then followed them to the school to keep an eye on them. Usagi and Hana both got detention for being so late, but it was something that kept them just about an hour longer and an hour safer.

Hana dreaded having to tell her mother she had gotten detention. She'd just have to hope her mother understood she'd gone to help a friend. Though how to explain why Usagi-chan had needed help without sounding like a maniac was beyond her.

"Hey, Usagi-chan. How can you accept all of this so easily? Doesn't it seem... I don't know... strange to you?" she asked quietly while they sat in detention. They'd explained that they had a project to do together anyway and so the teacher was letting them sit together and talk- quietly.

Usagi shrugged.

"Luna's always told me stories about the Sailor Senshi, and how she's always been there to find Sailor Moon and the others when they were needed most. I never thought anything of it, since she's talked for as long as I can remember, but I never expected to be the legendary Sailor Moon herself!" Usagi smiled, giving Hana a hug before taking out her notebook and looking over the notes that she had already taken for their project. "I know that it'll take some getting used to, but we can work together on that too."

'Hearing about it all your life probably helps with acceptance.' Hana thought, getting back to the project.

After detention she walked a ways with Usagi. "How do we find the other scouts. Will Luna know them when she sees them like she did me?" she asked, speaking softly so others wouldn't overhear.

"Luna always feels a slight connection with the others, like she did with you. But I'm not entirely sure how that works, so I suppose that we will have to rely on her in that respect." Usagi got worried. "I don't like having to pin her with that much work though..."

"It's not that bad you know," Luna said haughtily from above them. She'd been perched on the wall, waiting for them. "Artemis is bound to have found Venus by now, I'm sure of it. He always seems to run into her first."

"Venus?" Hana thought for a moment. 'She's Moon, I'm Jupiter... and there's a Venus as well... "Is there a senshi for every planet?" she asked. Though the moon was hardly a planet...

Luna nodded, sitting and curling her tail about her paws, raising one and licking it.

"Yes, there is. In the past, the Earth Senshi has often been male, and so not really a Senshi at all. The moon has a Senshi as well, because, while not a planet, the Moon is, in its own right, a kingdom. And like I said, in the past, the Earth Senshi has been male, and he has had other duties. The Moon Senshi was always a female, and thus able to protect both the Earth and the Moon." Usagi had gone all sparkly, like in shoujo mangas.

"It all sounds so romantic..." she said wistfully, hands clasped together and held just underneath her chin.

Hana was struggling not to giggle at the picture her friend made. "I see. So the Senshi of Earth doesn't really exist- since it's a man. Which means we're looking for seven other Senshi. And they could be anyone, anywhere. All we know for sure is that they are female. Who is Artemis?"

"Yes," Luna said, agreeing with Hana. "As far as Earth goes, we won't know until that person shows up whether it is a male or female. The outer Senshi usually show up on their own as well. We just have to find the inner Senshi." Smiling, Luna jumped down onto Usagi's shoulders, startling her out of her sparkly mode. "And Artemis is my husband. A white cat. He can talk and everything, just like me." Sighing, Luna got a tad bit sad. "It's been a while since I've seen him. And my daughter, Diana, is guarding the Gates of Time. Somehow, Pluto has gone missing..."

'A cat... who has a husband... well she can talk so I suppose in a weird way that makes since.' Hana thought. "Pluto... guards the Gates of Time then I take it? With your daughter?" she asked, trying to make sense of it all.

"Pluto is the Senshi guardian of time. I don't know where she's at, and Diana has had to take over completely for her. Usually it's only for like, a shift or something. But she's missing." Luna frowned. "I have a feeling that it has something to do with what's going on and why I've had to awaken you two." Looking around, Luna sighed, her ears and tail drooping. Usagi sympathetically scratched behind her ears. "I think that everything that's going on has to do with something going wrong in the past..."

"Now that is a scary thought. If the past is altered than so is the future," Hana pointed out. "How do we find out what is going on?"

Luna laughed nervously, pawing at her ear.

"I don't really know. I'm working on it though," she said.

Hana said her farewells to her friends, getting Usagi's cell number this time around, before she headed home herself to take on the task of taking care of her brother.

Usagi gave Hana a hug before leaving, and then headed to Juban Cafe. She ordered a drink, then sat in the booth in the corner, looking at Luna.

"Made any headway on who's taken my parents?" she asked quietly. Luna shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry Usagi-chan..." she said, just as softly.

Hana was working on her homework at her desk that night when she shot up with a gasp, hearing the sound of screams. She rushed to her brother's room first. It hadn't sounded like her brother- but she wanted to be sure. Kyo had always been a sound sleeper, and this was no exception. There he lay- sprawled out on his bed dead sleep.

She heard the scream again and rushed down the stairs and out the door to the street.

A woman dressed in a black, red, and blue Senshi fuku, with blond-black hair looked up, her dark blue eyes holding a darkness that was worse than the darkness of the night. She held what looked like a heart crystal in her hand, and tears streaked down her pale face. A mixture of anger, desperation, and helplessness surrounded her as she held the heart crystal. Luna raced up with Sailor Moon just then, and she stopped short.

"No... Usagi-chan...?" she whispered, dismayed beyond belief.

"What?" Sailor Moon asked, puzzled.

Hana looked between the two Senshi. They did look... similar somehow... same basic coloring of their uniforms, nearly the same hair styles. And there was a moon on the dark one's forehead. A dark, upside down moon. "Luna, who is she? Why does she look so similar to Usagi-chan?" she asked, pulling out her own pen. Thank heavens she'd thought to keep it on her at all times. She didn't call on the power just yet though- not sure if they'd have to fight this girl or not.

Luna shook her head.

"I will tell you later," she whispered, still mortified that THIS was what was wrong. If the original Usagi was here, then the rest of them would be as well! At that moment, the woman launched herself at them, and Sailor Moon jumped in the way, holding the older woman back for just a few seconds before both tumbled to the ground. The heart crystal went flying, and Luna leaped to catch it before it shattered against the ground. She caught it and tumbled closer to the girl that the crystal had been taken from. Luna recognized the girl as someone from Usagi's school. The heart crystal went back as she let go of it, and the girl sat up. Her blond hair had fallen out of its strange hairstyle, and Luna knew instantly that she was one of them, one of the Senshi. But before Luna could say anything, the girl ran away, casting a fearful look behind her.