"Fine, but answer this. Are you friend or foe?" I could tell the voice was one of the scouts, but I couldn't tell which.

I turned my head back toward them. "Both," I answered locking eyes with Darien again. I looked away, toward the others.

"And neither."

The day after the first attack, the scouts plus Darien (for future reference Darien is going to be included as pasrt of the group whenever I say 'the scouts' unless I otherwise indicate, k? Cool! Then on with the story!) all gathered at Rei's temple. They all were standing thinking about the battle from yesterday. Several minutes passed before the silence was broken.

"Why? I thought we had toasted the heart-snatchers like three enemies ago. Why are they back?" Mina's voice was soft, sounding almost as if she was scared.

"I know. It doesn't make any sense." Jupiter added.

"When did we fight them before?" Hotaru asked, her eyes showing confusion, but also concern.

The other scouts looked at each other. Slowly, one by one they all realized that they had fought the heart snatchers before Hotaru had become Sailor Saturn. After a shared glance between everyone, Michelle started the story.

All of the scouts contributed a little tot the story. Each one put in a little bit about their opinion or their point of view on events. It took them about half an hour to tell the whole story. By the time Serena had told the last part of the story, Hotaru's eyes had gone from wide, confused, and concerned to wide, horrified, and scared.

She shed one, silent tear. She seemed so sad at the devastation she had almost brought upon the world. When the others tried to comfort her with soft sayings about how it wasn't her fault and give her hugs she simply dropped and shook her head. When she looked back up, her eyes were steely and hard with a look of determination.

"We will defeat them again!"

"Yes we will, Hotaru, but why are they so much stronger this time?" Amara's cool, strong voice answered.

They talked fro a while discussing how they had defeated the heart-snatchers last time. They tried to figure out what could have changed that caused them to become so much stronger this time then the last time the scouts had fought the heart-snatchers.

Then there was a silence. The kind of silence where everyone knew they should speak up, but no one wanted to be the one to do it.

"What's worse is that our attacks don't even work on them," Neptune spoke up. She knew that was what was bothering everyone the most. No one wanted to be the one to bring it up though and when she did, everyone flinched and got rigid.

"Yeah, but this mysterious sailor scout's attacks did work. What gives?" Jupiter's passionate reply came.

"What do you guys think about her? Do you think we can trust her? Who is she really?" Hotaru's small voice asked.

"I don't think we can trust her. Something about her gives me a bad feeling. She makes me feel on edge," Amara's reply had a rough edge to it. Michelle immediately noticed it and decided to lighten the mood a bit by teasing Amara.

She asked if Amara's "bad feeling" stemmed from the fact that this mysterious was obviously stronger than Amara. Amara snorted, but flushed slightly in response. This brought a gentle smile to Darien's face and a good laugh to everyone else's.

"I think she has proven that, at the very least, she deserves a chance at our trust. She saved our lives yesterday. Not only that, but she succeeded alone where the rest of us combined failed," Trista's words rang true in everyone's opinion. They all knew that was a lot of wisdom in her words as well.

"And what about that odd riddle she gave us?" Ami asked. Everyone immediately remembered the mysterious girl's words. "I am two not one, but in one body. For one, I am an urban myth to those who didn't know me, a taboo subject to those who did."

"For the other, I am not from a planet, but from a star. With these two, I am the princess of your princess of your princess, but more importantly the princess to your prince," Michelle finished.

"None of it makes any sense. How can she be two 'in one body'?" Rei's voice started. The others began voicing their own questions.

"How can she be a sailor scout without being from a planet or moon?" "What taboo subjects are there that could be about her?" "What time is she from?"

"I think the last part is the most confusing.'I am the princesses of you princess, but more importantly the princess to your prince.' So she is obviously a princess, but from where?" Mina started. "I think the first part means she's a princess above Serena. Kind of like how we are all princesses of our planets, but Serena is our princess. That doesn't answer though where in the universe could she be from that she is the 'princess of our princess'?"

"Perhaps we could shed some light on that."

"Luna! Artemis! Where have you two been?" Mina's concerned voice called to the two cats who were walking across the temple toward the group.

"We've been doing a little research and we think we know the answer to part of the mysterious scout's riddle." Luna started. She went on to explain how they had gotten their first clue from the girl saying she was from a star not a planet. That immediately made them wonder which star she could be from.

Artemis took over there and told about how he had the idea that she might be from the sun since the sun is technically a star not a planet. However, that didn't answer how she could be a princess above Serena or even 'the princess to your prince.'

Luna once again took over. She explained the only person the prince could be in the riddle was Darien, but that looking in that direction hadn't gotten any new leads. So then they looked into anything that might indicate why she referred to herself as the princess of Serena.

Once again Artemis took over, this time looking like the cat who swallowed the canary. (A/N: How did that expression even start?)

He grinned like the Cheshire cat for a nit. He met everyone's eyes before finishing off the tale. He then told the scouts about how he vaguely had remembered a story Queen Serenity had told him back on the Moon during the Silver Millennium.

He explained about how the moon had not always ruled our solar system. He explained about how the queen of the sun had ruled and that she was the true ruler of our universe and that should she ever ask for her kingdom back, Queen Serenity would have had to comply. In other words, the queen of the sun was the queen of our queen.

He explained that it was the same concept as the one in the riddle and that everything fit. If she were the princess of the sun then technically she would be the princess above our princess. She would be the princess of our princess and be from a star instead of a planet.

It was the only logical explanation to the riddle, but the cats did not stop there. They continued to say how no matter where they look or how hard they researched they couldn't find any reference or record to a princess being born to the sun kingdom.

They then went on to explain about how they had a feeling that they were right that she was the princess of the sun, but since there had been no princess born to the sun queen, the only other way there could be a princess of the sun was if she had been married into the royal family.

They had done much research into that direction and finally, Luna and Artemis continued, after hours of researching they came upon a vague reference to the missing prince of the sun returning home with a bride.

"Wow! The princess of the sun, eh? I guess it does fit." Amara spoke after the cats had finished weaving their tale of discovery.

"Excellent work, Luna and Artemis." The two cats basked in the glow of Ami's praise.

"Yes good work, but that still doesn't explain the second part of the riddle. Do you have anything on the other part of the riddle? The part on Darien, our prince?" Michelle's polite, inquiring voice asked.

Both cats dropped their heads and sighed. They glumly said that they had absolutely no idea about that half of the riddle. They explained that no matter how hard they tried they couldn't even think of where to look to explain how the mysterious scout could be the princess to Darien.

"That's okay, you two. We will find out soon. At least we know a little bit more about her." Lita comforted the.

Everyone seemed pleased with their new knowledge. They all chatted idly with each other. The girls began gossiping and catching up on the attest events in all their lives, but Trista's voice broke them out of their chatting.

"I think we have all forgotten about one of the most troubling parts of this new, mysterious warrior." The girls all stared at her strangely, not knowing what she was talking about. Trista sighed and continued, 'If you all remember, we asked if she was friend or foe."

Everyone's eyes lit up in recognition they remembered. One by one all their faces fell as well as they remembered her strange answer.

"How is it possible to be both friend and foe and then neither on top of that? Nothing about this girl makes any sense."

"Well, Lita, it seems like nothing in our lives makes any sense right now." Mina commented. "I think her answer says that we should be very careful about trusting her. She helped us and saved all our lives, but she admitted that she is, the very least, partially an enemy. I don't think we should trust her quite-"

"No," Darien said simply. Everyone jumped a little when he spoke. If they were all being completely honest, all the girls had forgotten Darien was even there. "We can trust her. I know we can. I can't tell you how I know, but I do."

"I just have this feeling," He had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed against his body as he stared at the ground, but now looked up at the girls. All the girls' eyes were wide as they met his gaze. His own gaze was strong and steady, but confused. "On top of that, Mina makes a good point about her answer telling us a lot about her. It tells us that she is partially a friend to us. Something about her tells me that she will not hurt you girls physically."

All the girls were quiet, but one by one they all nodded their heads. They trusted Darien and if he said that he had a feeling that they could trust her then maybe she deserved a chance.

The meeting broke up after that. The outers left as a group telling Hotaru that they could go for ice cram if she wanted. Darien took Serena and went for a walk while the others inners stayed behind to hang out at the temple.

Serena and Darien were walking toward the park. They were holding hands as the strolled through the trees and grass. Neither of them spoke.

Serena seemed happy just to be with Darien. She was smiling widely and enjoying the warm weather and beautiful flowers as they took their walk. Darien seemed to be deep in thought though. He almost seemed like he wasn't even really paying any attention to where he was and what he was doing.

Serena looked at Darien and noticed his strange behaviour. She waited a few minutes and just observed him. Finally, she decided to ask Darien what was bothering him.

"Darien, you've been acting strangely. Are you ok? Are you sick or something?" she reached up to try to feel his forehead. "You don't feel warm, but you might still be coming down with something. Let's go back to-"

Darien leaned away from Serena's hand and smiled softly. "No, I'm fine, Serena. I have been feeling a little weird ever since we met that strange girl yesterday, but I don't think I'm getting sick."

"Yeah, she gives me the creeps a little too."

"No, that's not it." Darien shook his head a little and looked like he knew hwat he wanted to say just not how to say it.

Serena looked thoughtful, too. She was going through her memories of yesterday's battle and something occurred to her. She didn't know if she should ask or not. She decided to ask, but she did it hesitantly.

"Darien? Do you know her? The mysterious scout, I mean. Yesterday you two seemed tot stare at each other as if you knew each other. Not only that, but it seemed like you knew each other really well, like you had some strange connection. A very close connection."

Darien's eyes widened as Serena had talked. He realized that she was right. That was what this strange feeling was. He felt some deep connection to this girl.

He furrowed his brow as he tried to remember where he knew her from.

"I think you're right, Serena. I do have a connection to her, but I don't know from where." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he continued to go through all his memories. "I think that whoever she is that she and I have a history."

Serena opened her mouth to ask him more questions and maybe help him remember, but before a sound could come out of her mouth a beeping sounded startled both her and Darien.

She looked down at her wrist o see that it was her communicator beeping. She opened it and saw Sailor Uranus' face.

"Prince, Princess, you have to hurry. Another monster has appeared! We are at the ice cream shop by Rei's temple The others are already on their way. Please hurry!"

"We're on our way!" Serena yelled into the communicator just as Sailor Uranus' face disappeared. "Come on Darien we have to hurry!"

As they ran toward the nearby ice cream shop, they looked at each other and nodded once. A few seconds later they were both transformed and turning the corner to the ice cream shop.

They entered the battlefield just as Mars was being thrown in their direction. Tuxedo Mask managed to catch her and break her fall.

"Thanks Tuxedo!" Mars dusted off her uniform as she brought them up to speed. "She came out of nowhere. She cornered one of the workers, took her heart crystal, and transformed into her nasty, monster self just as the outers arrived. Then people fled and they called us and then called you two."

The prince and princess nodded and joined the battle.

….

I was just walking through the park when I saw him. Darien! I started to run toward him. Oh, I hadn't seen him in ages. I was so excied to see him. I needed to tell him that I was ok. That I was alive and that I didn't blame him for anything before my other half could tell him otherwise.

Just as I got within in hearing range I saw him running off with another girl. She had very strange hair. Like two meatballs sitting on top of her head.

They were out of sight soon. I ran after them. I was on just about to turn a corner after them, but stopped short when a familiar feeling swept over me.

'No!'

I feel to my knees as I felt power ripping and tearing at me from the inside. I tried to let out a scream, but the pain choked any sound that would have come out. I knew I couldn't handle transforming yet, but I also needed to get to Darien before my other half could.

The pain continued to sear at me from the inside. I finally couldn't take it any longer and let myself give in to it. As I felt the chains of imprisonment wrap around me, I felt the other half of my soul slip out and with her a different kind of power.

A kind of power the numbed the pain and made it disappear. This power took over with a soothing warmth. As the power spread throughout my body I felt the transformation start. The only transformation my body was ready for and could handle yet, but that's ok because it was more powerful than the other one anyway.

Shame though that she had to be the one to complete the transformation and not me. I could only hope that she didn't get the chance to talk to Darien and make him remember us before I could.

The final chain finished wrapping around me and I lost control over my body and she gained control.

'Would you relax? I have no intention of talking to him yet. He and the rest of those scouts still have to prove their power to me.' I told the goody-goody half of my soul.

I walked slowly to the battleground. I arrived just in time to hear Mars' explanation of the what had happened.

I stayed in the shadows observing the battle unfolding just a few feet in front of me. I scanned the ice cream shop turned battleground for the newest monster.

I involuntarily flinched a little when I spotted her. She had blue skin and armor. She had three sword sheaths with swords hanging from each hip. From what I could tell she also had a few daggers strapped to each thigh.

Her hands weren't hands at all, but large, sharp, and very intimidating-looking knives.

'Man, this woman's a walking knife shop.'

She was slashing and shooting at the scouts. As far as I coult tell, she hadn't landed a shot yet, but it wouldn't be long before someone got hurt.

'Let's just hope it's the monster and not the scouts.'

The only sounds so far had been the sounds of knives slashing through the air and the scouts jumping through the air to avoid the flying knives.

Then the fun began and the scouts began to throw attacks again, but I could tell they were only half-hearted attacks. They knew they would have no effect, but felt they had to try anyway. For that, I gave them a lot of credit in my book. They knew they were powerless against the monster, but fought hard anyway.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

The attack dissipated straight on contact with the monster. I could hear Mars growl in frustration and jump just in time to dodge a knife flying straight at her.

"Its useless guys! No matter what we through at her, it doesn't make a difference!" She yelled and dodged another flying knife.

"Yes, but we must keep trying. We can't give up! We must fight to protect our planet!" Michelle answered. She too was dodging knives. She was trying to distract the monster so the others girls could try and see if any of their attacks worked.

One of the knives nicked her shoulder and Michelle grasped her shoulder as the last layer of her sleeve ripped.

"We need the mysterious girl. She must be in the shadows watching!" Jupiter's voice yelled from across the battlefield.

"Then why won't she help us! Come out and help us fight!" Amara yelled. She stared at all the nearby rooftops for some kind of sign. She then searched the shadows on the ground. She was about to scan right over where I was when Hotaru's voice yelled out for Amara to watch out.

She jumped out of the way and stopped searching.

"Mercury, try and find a weak spot on her!" Sailor Moon yelled. Tuxedo Mask was currently in a battle with the monster to try and buy Mercury some time.

Mercury pressed her earring and her scanner flashed over her eyes. She spent several minutes scanning every inch of the knife woman.

"Guys, I'm trying, but I can't seem to find any weak spots! She seems to have this impenetrable armor around her. I can't seem to find any way around her defenses!"

I continued watching the battle waiting for the best time to attack without being noticed.

The opportunity came just as Sailor Venus was preparing to hit the knife woman with her crescent beam smash power. She yelled at Tuxedo to move and then began her attack.

'Perfect. Our attacks are the same color and brightness. I'll get the job done and it'll look like Venus did it."

I started the sequence of my attack as well. I timed perfectly so that my attack and hers released right at the same time. They hit just at the same time. This time the monster arched in pain as the golden orb I had shot entered her body. I could see her invisible armor shatter.

Tuxedo had jumped away form the monster and into the air. He reached inside his jacket. When his hand came out he flung it in the direction of the monster as he jumped over it. A ring of red roses appeared around the monster. A light shot up encircling the monster. It must have hurt because the monster started screaming and very small scratches began to appear on her skin.

"You did it, Venus!" "Good job Venus!" "Wait to go Venus!"

"Thanks guys, but it wasn't me." She answered.

"Then who was it?"

"It was her." Venus nodded toward the shadows I was hiding in. The others looked confused until I stepped out of the shadows. "She did it. The princess of the sun."

I could heard the chorus of 'its her" in all the girls' heads. I rolled my eyes in my head as I walked forward. "She's right it was me. Good job on figuring out the riddle so quickly and figuring out who I am. I assume it was Luna and Artemis who figured it out right." The looks on their faces told me I was right. "Well they did well. I am a princess of the sun."

"But why? How?" Michelle asked.

"As much as I would love to sit and explain everything we still have a monster to destroy and Tuxedo's circle of roses can't hold out much longer.

Just as I said that the monster managed to grab on of her many swords and cut the roses in half. "You're done for you stupid scouts! I don't know how you managed to wound me, but it doesn't matter. I'll slice and dice you and then the boss will be so proud, I'll be promoted!"

She came at us quickly one of her sword arms raised.

"How do we destroy her? None of our attacks work!" Mina's voice called to me as we all scattered.

"They will now. The next attack to hit her should destroy her." I yelled back. We all dodged for a little while. I locked eyes with Uranus and we seemed to have a moment of understanding.

I stopped and stood still and yelled, "Hey, you stupid walking knife, I'm t he one who broke your armor!"

The monster glared at me and charged. She was about ten feet from me when Uranus attacked.

"Space Sword Blaster!" The attack hit and as the monster screamed. I tried to stare through the glare at the monster to make sure she was gone.

"You'll pay for this!" the strange knife-woman yelled. Just before she was turned to dust her grabbed her thigh. I saw a glint of something shiny headed straight toward Uranus.

I quickly realized the monster had managed to grab and throw one of the daggers that had been strapped to her thigh. Nobody, but me seemed to notice it though. I ran toward Uranus. She stared at me, still not noticing the knife and started to raise her sword in defense.

I jumped at her and pushed her hard. She was pushed several feet back before she fell to the ground. 'Good! She's safe.' I turned toward the knife noticed that it was headed straight toward me now. I didn't have time to move out of the way and just closed my eyes and waited.

I didn't have to wait long. The knife hit me and pierced me right in the chest. I heard a very masculine grunt coming from my right as the knife hit me. I fell to the ground and screamed as the pain blossomed in my chest and was aggravated by me hitting the ground.

I looked at my chest and saw the dagger was imbedded in the middle of my chest right below the bow. There was only about half an inch of the dagger not in my chest. The white of my uniform was quickly turning red with my blood. The golden bow seemed to be framing the jeweled hilt of the dagger.

I turned to my right to see Tuxedo Mask grasping his chest in what looked like immense pain. Uranus was looking at me with wide eyes of surprise and confusion. She seemed too sc\hocked to speak. I looked around to see all the others scouts were all staring in shock at me. A few of the inners had even fallen to their knees.

Saturn and Pluto were grasping their respective staffs tightly, though they still stood. Neptune's face was stricken and she had tears streaming down her face. Her hand was half raised as if she had tried to stop the dagger. Her knees began to wobble and Saturn and Pluto quickly walked up to help support her.

Uranus started crawling toward me and stopped just before she reached me. "Why would you do that? Why, why save me? I thought you were our foe."

I tried to smile at her and managed for a second before I grimaced from the pain. "I saved you because I am not your foe. I am not quite a friend yet, but I am most definitely not a foe. Besides that you al mean a lot to me, for reasons I might tell you another time. On top of all that, my mission is the same as yours." I grunted in pain again before breathing deeply as I continued. "I want to, no that's not right, I need to save this planet. And to do that I need all of you alive."

"Yes, but now you are severely injured. You might not make. I can see immense bleeding both internally and externally. I think you may have nicked an artery. Guys, we need to get her to a doctor!" Mercury yelled out. She still seemed very shaken, but I think the blood must have taken her out of her shock enough to scan me.

"No, I don't need a doctor. I just need to get this dagger out. Besides, you're not taking me to a doctor while I'm still like this, in my sailor form." As choked scream escaped as I lifted my hand and grasped the hilt of the dagger.

I was just about to close my hand around the hilt when a gloved hand grabbed mine. I looked at the hand and followed it to look up into Tuxedo Mask's, or rather Darien's, eyes. His mask was off, but he was still transformed. His tuxedo sleeves and coat were torn in several places.

"No, don't take the dagger out. You'll bleed out." He was staring into my eyes. I could tell he was still trying to figure out our connection. He shook his head lightly and then his eyes hardened. 'I can't think about that right now! She needs help! I don't care if I have to knock her out and carry her myself to a hospital. I have to help her.'

I gasped as I retreated from his mind. I could tell his chest was still in pain and that he was trying his hardest, and failing, to ignore it. I got a rush of adrenaline and the pain ebbed slightly.

I smacked his hand away from me hard. "Don't touch me!"

"I don't care if I have to knock you out. You are going to a hospital right away!" Darien's eyes were getting more and more steely as he continued. "Mercury find he nearest hospital!" I vaguely registered her responding with a 'right away'. "Transform back, now! Or I will take you to the hospital in you sailor form!"

When I made no move to transform back he started to reach down to grab me. "I said don't touch me!" I yelled at him. He glared at me and then kept moving. "I said don't touch me! You don't get it! Don't touch me!"

He reached down and continued to try to pick me up. "NO!" There was a tear in one of his gloves and the skin exposed there had brushed the skin of my upper arm. We both gasped as memories flooded us.

Darien managed to look at me. His body shook and his eyes widened as our gazes met. Then he blacked out. I could barely hear the other scouts yelling his name over the memories that flooded Darien and my minds.

The wave of memories must have been too much for Darien's mind to handle. 'Huh, I always did have a stronger mind than you.' I thought. I as able to stay conscious, barely, throughout he first wave of memories, but when Darien had blacked out, he had collapsed…right on top of me. His head landed right next to mine and his chest smothered mine.

His weight pushed the dagger the rest of the way into my chest. The pain was immense and unbearable. I screamed loudly through the agony. As I screamed I felt my tiara disappear and a burning sensation replace it, right in the middle of my forehead.

The combination of the excruciating pain and the next wave of memories was too much for me to handle.

'I told you not to touch me, Darien. Why didn't you listen? Why don't you ever listen to me?'

The burning sensation in my head faded and the familiar weight of my tiara replaced it. Then it was me the others were crying out to.

"Sailor Sun!"

'Well at least they figured out who my sailor form is. Darien, I'm sorry. I wanted to make you remember when we were alone. Why didn't you listen to me?'

And with that my world went black.