AN: I actually already have a good portion of the story written, which is why more than one chapter is being posted today. I hope everyone enjoys!
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Still.
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He was sleeping when I arrived, but his face seemed troubled. As cautiously as I could, I began sending waves of comfort and reassurance through our bond, to ease him without disturbing his rest. I just sat on his window sill, watching him.
After about a half hour, he slept more deeply, moving beyond the world of dreams. I slid open the window and entered the room silently.
I was getting an odd sense through my bond to him, as if there was a semi-opaque barrier between us. I could reach him, but it felt strange. I perched on the edge of his bed and took one of his hands in mine. Concentrating, I let the magic flow.
I adjusted my senses into the stream. Opening my eyes again, I now saw things in a magical sense rather than the physical world I could still feel around me. There was a barrier between Mamoru and I. It wasn't very strong, but there nonetheless. Our bond also lacked a certain depth that I was hard-pressed to explain, even to myself. Something was missing.
I began to probe more deeply into his magic and mind. Abruptly, I pulled up short. I was right; something was missing. Every bit of his memory regarding me, any of his powers beyond the psychometry he'd possessed since childhood, every wisp of Endymion was seemingly absent from his soul. The place was there, but it was empty, as if a piece of his being had just broken away for some reason or other. I pushed myself away, horrified. The only slight bit that remained was the dream that I had sent him for so long, of the Princess asking for his help. It didn't even mention the Ginzuishou any more. No… no. That wasn't strictly it. I could feel, in a vague sense, a remnant of the urge that drew him to me whenever I was in danger. It was very weak, though, only enough to make him uneasy rather than to bring him to my rescue.
Withdrawing fully from the power, I sank back against him in shock. He was still deeply asleep, but his arm wrapped around my waist. I only slightly noticed the contact, too caught up in what I had learned. He hadn't come… because he couldn't. Endymion's place in his soul was empty. He still had some of his magic- that had been born in him long before the creation of Tuxedo Kamen or any emergence of the ancient past. There just wasn't any active magic that he could use except to heal. Our small contact had activated that skill and all my wounds, new and old, vanished.
I couldn't bear another minute. A barely muffled sob forced its way through my throat even as I leapt out the window. I didn't even bother to use the balconies to drop down more slowly, just letting myself fall. I was only a few feet above the ground when I twisted and pushed off the next building with my feet. Once I was steady on the edge of a fence, I began jumping up again, very pointedly avoiding Mamo-chan's window.
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"And, in other news, there have been increased sightings of Sailor Moon outside of battles. A strange man has been noticed with her as a companion, but the rest of the Senshi seem to have chosen to sit this round out, and there is also no sign of the mysterious Tuxedo Kamen."
I flipped the TV off with a scowl. Of course the others weren't around, but it was hardly a choice. As for me… well, Luna would have killed me if she saw that. I wasn't supposed to linger while in Senshi form, for fear of drawing attention to myself to the point of revealing my secret. I didn't really have a choice, though; I just had to check up on Mamo-chan and my friends. A deep instinct warned me that just as much as trouble always found me, it would seek them as well. At some point or other, they would be brought back into the fight.
It had become a habit for me. No, I never henshined outside a fight, but once the battle was done I always found myself outside Mamoru's, watching him. My feet would then take me to each of my friends' so I could make sure they were all right.
They didn't seem to be, though. They were alone a lot, practically all the time, really. It was true for Mamo-chan or any of my Senshi. As much as it pained me to admit it, they had been happier as warriors, because as dangerous as it was, it had given them the friends they never had.
Rei was feared by most of the other people at school because of her unusual abilities. They might have gone to her if there were things they wanted to know, but she wasn't allowed to be close to them, and they never accepted her. She just stayed at Hikawa Jinja every day, with Yuuichiro and her grandfather as her only company. The sole exception was the two crows she had named Phobos and Deimos. I recognized them easily as being her guardians from the past, but I never let them know I was aware of their little secret. I would've had to sit through another diatribe for not awakening the other Senshi.
Ami-chan remained essentially the same as she had always been. She studied constantly. Her companion was a book, not a person. Sometimes there was such a sad expression in her eyes as she watched the other students in our class. They would laugh and have fun all the time, but she was never invited to join them. They knew she was busy with her cram school and everything else and just left her alone. She might as well have just not been there.
Mako-chan got in fights a lot. People said a lot of mean things behind her back, though I corrected them whenever I could. I was working on getting her to open up to me, just as I was with the others, but she had been tormented for so long by the kids at our school that she was having a hard time trusting me to really be a friend instead of just looking for something else to bother her with.
Minako-chan had her fans, but not friends. Everyone considered her haughty and even made comments about her dressing up like Sailor V or calling her a wannabe. I saw the pain in her eyes all the time. She didn't even have the support of knowing she was Sailor V. She relied on Artemis for comfort, though I can't imagine he was much support when he couldn't talk to her. I knew he wanted to, just to take the loneliness from her eyes, but he couldn't any more than I could. Of all the Senshi, she was the hardest to reach, simply because there weren't many ways for our paths to cross. I went to school with Ami-chan and Mako-chan, and I could talk to Rei-chan by going to the shrine, but Minako-chan and I had no real common grounds. My plan was to corner her in the mall sometime and chatting until she talked too.
Mamo-chan barely spoke to anyone. Even Motoki-onii-san was receiving the cold shoulder, and Mamoru was being more surly than usual. He would though, on occasion, smile at me during one of our encounters. I didn't antagonize him, or screech at him for calling me Odango Atama, simply because it was foolish to do so. I wanted him to like me, not to remember me as the girl that shrieked at him like a fishwife. Slowly he was starting to accept me again. At the very least, we were friends. I hoped we might become something more if I gave it enough time.
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I really knew intuitively that things would involve my Senshi sooner or later, but I prayed constantly that it would be later. Maybe they were lonely in their normal lives, but they weren't in constant danger, and I never wanted them to die for my sake again. It had already happened twice, and both occasions were burnt into my mind and haunted my dreams. I could hardly bear thinking about it. I wanted them far away from any battles, even knowing that there would come a point where my tiara wouldn't cut it and I'd need their support. I tried to rationalize it by saying that I had Kunzite to back me up.
It would have been impossible for me to not become suspicious when I heard that all four of my Senshi and Naru-chan had been invited to audition for a role in some show or other. Naturally, I did my best to be included, since I would end up there anyway when the fireworks started. So far, I had been dealing exclusively with energy gatherers, and five young girls made excellent targets for energy. Something about Naru drove those particular monsters to her, and Senshi energy was particularly powerful.
The guard at the studio wouldn't even let me wait with Naru-chan, which only made me more suspicious. A closer look told me that he had been brainwashed, or something along those lines. There was a glazed layer in his eyes that made it exceedingly clear. I circled away, hoping to find a different route.
Luna had come with me, which was definitely nice. "Luna, do you know how to get out of here?"
"I have no idea, Usagi-chan. You should pay more attention to your surroundings when entering unusual places."
"Oh, you worry too much. I see Mamo-chan up ahead; I'll ask him."
She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything as I approached him. We had been cultivating a friendship of sorts, so he didn't grimace or anything when he saw me, which was pleasant in comparison. Unfortunately, the new girl in my class- Natsumi, or something like that- was here too, hanging off his arm. Her brother had joined our school too and he followed me around sometimes. It really freaked me out when he did that, especially since he seemed incapable of taking no for an answer.
He shook her off when he saw me. "Odango Atama."
Some greeting. "Hey, Mamoru-san. My friend had an audition here, but I got lost. Where's the exit?"
"An audition, huh? Sounds like fun. It's a lot of work, though, acting. Well, the exit's three corridors down and two to your left, then down again. Got that?"
"Three down, two left, down again. Got it. Thanks for the help, Mamoru-san."
"Mamoru-san," Natsumi purred as I mentally throttled the twit, "could you please show me around? I'm dying to see how a TV studio looks."
"No, sorry," he replied coldly. "I have work to do, and I'm already running behind." He brushed past her, waving to me as he took off. I waved back, just to irritate her.
"Usagi-chan," she smiled, faux-sweetly, "are you friends with Mamoru-san?"
"Of sorts," I answered vaguely. "We've known each other for a while, but we didn't get along for ages. We're just becoming friends now."
"Could you tell me anything about him? He doesn't talk too much," she prodded.
I shook my head. "I really don't know all that much about him." Complete lie, that. I knew everything about him. "You'd do better to ask some of his classmates or something." Not that it would net her any results. Mamoru didn't open up to anyone except Motoki and I, and neither of us would tell. "Listen, Natsumi-san, I have to go; I'm meeting a friend after her audition."
I just know she was glowering at my back as I walked off. Returning to the door to the studio Naru was sent to, I was practically hit with a sharp wave of dark power. I fell back a few paces, coughing. "That was unpleasant," I muttered before plunging in.
The place seemed to be filled with an odd purple mist of some sorts, making it very vague and hard to see, but the place seemed much larger than it looked on the outside. I rather guessed that it wasn't just the layout giving it that feel. The room had definitely grown.
Luna darted out and yelled at me. "Usagi-chan, there's trouble! You have to henshin, quickly!"
I nodded, my hand falling to my broach. "MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE-UP!"
I really needed to learn how to make the process a little quicker and less showy. Thirty seconds of lights and ribbons passed before my henshin was complete. I was raring for a fight at this point, knowing all of my best friends were involved. A good portion of me was somewhat pleased Mamoru had been deflected by the nuisance that was my dear classmate, since it kept him away from this mess.
I only needed a few moments to take inventory. With the ease of long practice, I leapt to the top of one of the decorative arches, rather shocked when it didn't so much as tremble. Okay, not decorative- this thing was actually a stone arch! I shook my head at the vagaries of energy-stealing aliens with little respect for human life.
Naru-chan looked like she had already been zapped, which hardly surprised me. Out of the five of them, her reflexes would be slowest, which would make her easy to pick off when they had started running. Mako-chan was carrying her as the other three led the way. Ami-chan, as usual, was spouting off information of some kind. There are occasions where I would swear that she has a second Mercury Computer in her head.
Putting Naru down, both Rei and Mako-chan prepared to fight the monster, which seemed to be along the lines of a Minotaur from Greek mythology, though with a few alterations- like the fact it was female. And way too scantily clad to be terrorizing young girls. I sighed, trying to figure out why exactly that seemed to be the case with so many of my female enemies. I mean, look at Beryl! She was practically bursting out of that dress!
'Focus, Usagi,' I reprimanded firmly before shouting to get the monster's attention. Ali and En had obviously taken off already if they had been here at the start, but I assumed they had by Luna's reactions. The monster had a few scratch lines down its face as well, and I would assume that Rei had tried one of her charms against evil spirits, which was most likely the only reason it hadn't gotten all of them already. I already knew that the charm wouldn't have held for long.
"Hold it right there! I can never forgive someone who bullies girls!" At least not those girls, at any rate. "In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!" I hate that speech.
I saw the monster coming at me and had to jump out of the way before it impaled me on its horns. A small part of my mind heard the others saying something about the situation looking familiar. Instinct told me that this monster was too strong for the tiara and had me reaching for my Wand- that I had lost after fighting Beryl, and the Ginzuishou with it.
I managed to dodge the next few attempts, but the thing was fast and I had no back-up. I knew Kunzite wouldn't come to my aid when there were others around since the glamour surrounding his appearance was less powerful than the ones shielding the Senshi's identities. Without a way to attack, I knew it would catch me sooner or later.
It did. I had my back against the wall and nowhere to go. It managed to get its horns to either side of me, locking me in my position and starting to drain my energy. I was dropping off quickly, but I was still aware enough to realize when it hoisted me high off the ground. I just wasn't strong enough to fight back.
I know Luna panicked and what would come next. I couldn't fight, and Kunzite couldn't help, but there were four other warriors in the room and she was terrified for me. Four identical beams of golden light sprang out and lit each of my friends' faces. For a second, a glowing crescent adorned their foreheads as it did mine, quickly replaced with the symbols of their respective planets. They knew what was next.
The henshin pens came to their hands as Luna brought them forth. Judging by their words, they truly remembered the past only as it should have occurred, as I should have. I heard them calling the words that were in a sense imprinted in our souls.
"MERCURY POWER!"
"MARS POWER!"
"JUPITER POWER!"
"VENUS POWER!"
They spoke together in the last line. "MAKE-UP!"
I had already lived this occasion, so I remember how it feels to embrace the power after its absence. For me, it was colored with the despair of fighting again. For them, I highly doubted they would see it the same way. Being a Senshi gave them a purpose and friends. They also carried the overwhelming instinct to defend and protect me, which gave them the strength to fight even against the most overwhelming odds. My friends…
I was seriously slipping now, too tired to even listen to what was happening. My energy levels were dropping too rapidly. I felt Mercury's mist burst forward and recognized its coolness on my skin. That soft brush of my Senshi's power helped me recover, a little. I opened my eyes even as Jupiter leapt up and pulled me away from the creature. She then proceeded to blast it. My hair lifted slightly at the static electricity in the air.
I was completely aware again as the card hit the ground, returning a portion of my energy to me. An image of Ali and En appeared.
"Damn it! I didn't know there were five Sailor Senshi!" he growled.
"We won't forget this!" En warned. They vanished again.
I leapt to my feet to face my friends. "Everyone!"
"You still can't do anything without us," Mars said with a grin.
Jupiter added, "We just can't leave you alone."
I couldn't stop smiling. Maybe I wanted normal lives for them, but there was nothing more reassuring than having the whole group united once more.
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AN: That wraps up part two. I should post another chapter or two after this, so if I have, keep reading. Please everyone, let me know what you think! Till next time!
