A/N: A few people might have had problems with my prologue last week. I should have mentioned somewhere in that author's note that it was most likely OOC, but I wasn't thinking clearly around that time.

I haven't seen any of the anime since last year through Blockbuster DVDs. I am basically struggling to write this entire thing based on my memories of the entire thing. That and the website with various episode summaries (Castle in the Sky, mostly).

Thanks for attempting to be patient with me yet again. If you have problems with this fanfic, though, I suggest you don't go past this point...

-BDR

"CHAPTER ONE"

Amara Ten'ou sighed as she turned off the ignition, forcing her grip to loosen its hold on the steering wheel. She always hated the morning after her nightly escapades, where she'd be jittery and wound up so tightly it wasn't even funny. She was surprised she hadn't snapped at Michelle this morning.

She was surprised she had gotten them to the school alive this morning.

The trip here nearly got her a speeding ticket once they exited the driveway, stress pushing her accelerator nearly to the floorboard. To make matters worse, she had passed a stop sign without slowing down until it was too late. Then nearly ran over a cat that decided it was going to pop out of nowhere and almost become a kitty pancake.

But all was well...for now.

Her hands finally slipped from the wheel and into her lap, shaking from the pressure she had put on them for the thirty-minute drive. It's all because of him, she recited in her mind. It's all because of him!

"Amara?" she heard Michelle's contralto voice asked. "Are you okay? You're awfully quiet."

Amara glanced to her right to see the aqua-haired woman looking back at her, her blue eyes filled with a combination of concern and curiosity. She shook her head in reply, signaling that she didn't want to talk about it. Never would. Not while that man was out there, still breathing air into his lungs. She'll make him pay for...what, exactly?

The one person she ever had a problem with besides the enemy. There was just something about him that rubbed her the wrong way.

Maybe because he was the only guy who had touched her without hatred fueling his intentions. It still—dare she say it—scared her because it had been a different situation, and nothing had been able to quickly come to mind. Her weakness caused her to run.

It's all because of him...

"Your ire is showing."

Amara blinked, a startled gasp let out at the simple comment. Her eyes flicked to her rearview mirror, and she saw the dark blue tint of her irises. She clinched her teeth, balled one hand into a fist, and opened the car door of her yellow convertible. "It's nothing," she muttered. "Nothing to worry about."

"All right," came the sighed response. Her younger cousin followed her lead, stepping out into the gravel parking lot and swiftly walking away. "I don't believe you," the woman called out. "But I swear I'll drag it out of you, Amara Ten'ou."

She didn't answer with a comeback like most people would. There was no point at all. Michelle was right, she would find out somehow or another. Until then, all she could do was attempt to calm down and forget.

A pair of emerald green eyes flashed in her memory, the vividness of the image forcing her to lean against the car door. How could she remember them so clearly? She had only seen them once in her entire life, and yet...

She pounded her fist against the door, narrowing her eyes. "This is ridiculous," she muttered, using the same words she had uttered last night on her way back to the mansion. "I see Kyo every day, and he doesn't make me feel this way. So why should this guy?"

But Kyo scared her differently. Every weekend, every time she did something right—in his case, something wrong—she paid the price for her actions. It was always the same. Yet she never fought back, no matter how many times she heard her mind yell out orders.

It was a miracle she always (somehow) came out with a few minor bumps and bruises that would fade the next morning. If a few injuries just happened to remain on her arms, she would use her uniform to cover them up.

Until winter faded into spring and then summer. Then she had to come up with excuses. If she were to tell the truth, Kyo would kill her. And she couldn't let that happen.

She couldn't die until she and Michelle—Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune—found the three sacred talismans. The Space Sword. Deep Mirror. Garnet Orb.

Amara shook her head and pushed her body away from her vehicle. The only thing to keep her sane. Her mission. The main reason she was called here. She'd do anything to get her hands on them, even if it meant risking her life and the target's. And it didn't matter what Miss Moon and her little group of friends form the Target Protection Agency of Japan could say or do about it.

Right now, she hoped her newly-found constant jitteriness wouldn't interfere with the next battle with a Heartsnatcher. Or else she wouldn't hear the end of it for a week.

Or three.

Not that Michelle would yell at her.

She started walking down the Crossroads Senior High parking lot, steadily making her way to the courtyard. It was all she was set on doing for the next ten minutes, going to the grassy area and taking a nap. Two hours never helped anybody, and it felt like the first four hours and thirty minutes never even existed in the first place. Based on past experience (four weeks ago), she would find that the day seemed longer than usual. She might fall asleep in class. She might fall asleep on her way to class.

And her reflexes would either be heightened or slowed, depending on what type of day it was and what was thrown at her.

She tried her best to keep herself from yawning. She could have fought the urge to go to the track at 3:30 in the morning. Sure, it would prove the be as hard as not racing at all, or even like telling Neptune that checking pure hearts was a waste of time. Yet...something dragged her there. It was like she had to go.

So with a mixture of curiousity, restlessness, and a large amount of insomnia, she had gotten out of the house and proceeded to head off to the track.

Big mistake.

Now she couldn't stop calling herself an idiot.

Now she had to deal with the consequences of lack of sleep.

Now she had to deal with the memories and even the dreams she had had in the course of two hours' time.

Perfect. Just what she needed.

Her feet finally making it to the green grass of the courtyard, Amara forced herself to go a little ways further until she reached the base of a tree. She sat down with a soft sigh, leaned her head against the rough bark, and closed her eyes.

Everything around her seemed to swirl in a vast darkness. All sounds mixed together, the volume slightly increased. Her mind unwound itself from the strain she had put on it, images and colors fusing and blurring into something indecipherable. And slowly, she let herself slip into a world only known by her and no one else...

"Watch out!" a chorus of male voices shouted.

Amara jolted back to reality, looked up to see a softball hurtling n her direction, the white sphere zeroing in on its target at an alarming rate. Every muscle in her body stiffened, her eyes narrowing as she watched it sail closer...closer...closer...

Before it had a chance to hit her square in the nose, she quickly reached into the air and snatched the ball, the smack against her palm echoing loudly in the now-quiet courtyard.

"Wow..."came the murmur after a while. "Ten'ou caught it..."

She had never lowered her arm, but her eyes flitted around the area. No one seemed to be the culprit, but even enemies had a way of becoming inconspicuous when it came to their latest crimes.

Even enemies had a way of sealing their identities away from truth-seeking minds.

Tired of trying to do this the hard way, she glared at everybody within the seeing range, her blood boiling to a dangerous degree. "Who threw it?" she asked lowly.

There was a low chuckle coming from up ahead, the sound vaguely familiar. "I guess you caught me," the bass voice answered. The low timbre also sparked recognition, thought she couldn't exactly where she ahd heard it before. He continued by saying, "Just like you caught that ball."

Her arm lowered slowly, her hand relaxing the rock-hard projectile that would have probably knocked her out had she not been alerted so early. There was a boy not much older than she was standing a little ways away from her, smirking as he ran a hand through his already-unruly dark brown hair. His eyes were so far away that she couldn't tell what color they were, and she was partially tempted to stand up, march over to him, and find out.

Partially. But she chose not to.

"Hello, Rip Van Winkle," the newcomer drawled. "Plan to sleep for the next hundred years?"

Amara growled at him, prepared to get up and tackle him right then and there. "Of course not, " she said instead. "I'm wide awake."

The new guy snorted, crossed his arms over his chest. "Sure you were. All fully concious people have their eyes closed and look like they're about to start snoring." He took one step forward. "Although...not everybody could pull a stunt like that. I'm almost convinced you're not really human."

She clenched her teeth, one of her hands balling into a fist. "What else could I possibly be if not human?"

He shrugged a shoulder, tilted his head to the slide a bit and said, "I don't know. You look more like a demon in this perspective."

That does it! Not even five minutes have passed and she was already tired of this freak! "I'll show you demon..." she grounded out, grasping the white ball again.

"Oh, what are you going to do? Use your demonic powrs to turn that thing into a fireball? I'm so scared!" He then began to laugh.

Everybody else began backing away. They knew her pretty well. Knew that it took a lot to rile her up and that bad things could happen once you got on her bad side. It was time he learned the hard way. And fast.

A younger girl, one with shoulder-length bright purple hair and yellow eyes, looked at her with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Her head shook subtly from side to side.

Why single out one girl when there were fifteen others in the same area?

It didn't matter. What did matter was this weird feeling sitting in the middle of her gut. It was anger, yes, but also something completely different. Something she had never felt before in her life.

This odd mixture caused her to give him another chance to make amends. "Actually, I'm just going to throw it at you. It'll just feel like a fireball."

Out of the corner of her eye, Amara saw the girl violently shake her head now, running a finger across her throat. Who did she think she was?

She didn't care. All she wanted was to see what this idiot would do next.

"I bet you'll miss. Everybody I've met who's given me the same threat has bad hand-eye coordination. You're likely to be the same."

Amara's eyse narrowed even more at this boy. "Oh, really?"

"I'm never wrong about these things. Face it, you're too weak to take on a challenge like this."

She blinked. Every muscle in her body except for the one holding the ball loosened. "To...weak...?" she repeated quietly. Seems like my temper isn't the only thing he's going to learn about me during his stay.

The man nodded his head. "Are you in or are you out, Kiddo?"

Amara stood up quickly and reeled back her arm. "Definitely in!" she exclaimed as she let it loose.

The cry of pain intertwined with the sound of the bell. She smirked as she turned around and headed towards the building. Couldn't help but let one word drift on the wind as she left.

"Sucker."

A/N: For those of you who are just now getting an email saying that this is a new chapter, I'm sorry! The first time I posted this, it cut off in the wrong spot, so I had to go over it again and retype where it left off...

-BDR