Author's Note:
Dear Reader,
It's been a LONG time since I last updated. Almost a year. So please be understanding and if you have come back to read after that long, then I guess I've done my job, right? Thank you SO much to everyone who added this to their story alerts because that's really the only reason I've started writing again.
Much Love, PSC
"Usagi? What's the matter with you today?" Luna popped her head in the window and laid on the bed, evidently exhausted. "Did your mother get upset with you again?"
"No, it's Naru. Can I ask you something, Luna?" I plopped beside her in my own fit of tiredness. Not waiting for an answer, I continued, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is the whole 'secret identity' thing?"
"USAGI-CHAN! How can you possibly ask that question? This isn't a game! You have people to protect and a world to save! We still haven't found Sailor V, yet, so how can you even think about giving away a secret like this one?" Obviously the wrong question.
"OKAY! I get it." Still, I don't know how much I can accomplish by being the kind of friend who doesn't even tell her best friend that she's saved her life on a regular basis. "But what about if I just accidentally… let it slip?"
"Did you?"
"Hahahahaha… No… Luna, you have no faith in your ward!"
"In that case…" SLASH. Luna's claw's ripped through my skin and at once I burst into tears.
"USAGI!~" Mamma called from downstairs. "Naru-chan is here!~"
"Naru!" I leapt from the bed accidentally throwing Luna towards the wall.
Naru stood at the door with a look of fear hiding behind a smile. I wondered what was going on. Was something wrong? Her lips were happy, but her eyes… they were terrified. She did a double check behind her and quickly stepped in. Sliding off her shoes she grabbed my wrist and bolted to my room.
Closing the door tightly, she sighed with relief.
"Oh. My. God. Usagi! I need to talk to you so badly!" Naru panted as she fell on the floor in a fit of frustration.
"Naru?" I knelt next to her, placing a comforting hand on her back. "What's the matter? Are you okay?"
"It's… complicated." She kept a steady eye on the floor. "You know how I told you I was in love? With Matsato-kun?"
"Um, I vaguely remember that." I was hesitant, not really liking where this whole thing was going.
"He wasn't what I thought at all. I guess I fooled myself into thinking that I could be happy. What a joke, right?" She laughed at herself. "I still loved him and now, I'm freaking myself out. Plus, Zoi—something or other is following me. I could have sworn that they were following me here…"
"What's a Zoi?" I played dumb, trying not to give too much away. Wait? Did she just say he followed her here? Luna, I willed silently, You need to get back here now! I could use some wise moon cat stuff right about now!
"Zoi—is short for Zoicy… or Zoicite… or… I don't really know, but he killed Nephlyte. And Sailor Moon? She didn't even try to stop him."
"Sailor… Moon?" It always freaks me out a little when I hear that name; I always have a twinge that someone knows. "Naru-chan, you aren't really making sense. A normal person could get really lost." But I'm keeping up for once.
Naru fingered the pendant around her neck as she retold the story that I'd lived first hand. It was a story that I had to hold back from interjecting as she got all of Sailor Moon's parts wrong. Nephlyte was bad: as bad as they come. Loving Naru was the only decent thing he'd done on earth. And even then…
That pendant Naru had. A gift from her mother? Nephlyte? Umino? This thought almost made me laugh out loud, but I contained my self as Naru continued with her most painful memories. It was beautiful. It was crescent moon shape opaque crystal. A SILVER crystal.
