Disclaimer: Nope. I don't own Sailor Moon.

I'd really like to thank all my reviewers. Really, you've kept me motivated to write. This isn't my first fanfiction, but it is my first Sailor Moon fic and I was afraid I wouldn't do it justice. I'm so thankful for your support and I hope it continues.

I hope this chapter is up to par. I'm on Spring Break and I have a few moments to myself to write. I'm excited. I've got some ideas for where to go. But PLEASE let me know if you feel like there are weak points or you want more of something. I always love suggestions. I might not always use them, but I do always consider any ideas people give me.

So Enjoy!

"Midori."

She appeared in space, floating before him, down on one knee. She took his outstretched hand and placed it to her lips. Her blacks eyes stared up and waited, her green hair unmoving in the chilly galaxy around them.

"Continue with your efforts. She will be changed. She will be mine. I wont allow any to interfere. If the other scouts come to her side, isolate her so that you fight alone. The knife I gave you is essential. Use it against her until it surrounds her and fills her entirely."

His voice chilled Midori, but she suppressed a shiver. She couldn't show any sort of emotion. She couldn't show any weakness. "Yes, Master."

She disappeared, leaving him to himself in the black existence he loved and hated simultaneously. He crossed his legs and smiled, his thin lips pulling over his white, sharp teeth, his red eyes glowing. "Yes, Usagi, you will be mine." He brought a gold flower to his lips and rubbed the soft flesh of the petals against them. "I will make you mine. I will take you body and soul."

Usagi leaned into the mirror in her bathroom, wincing at the still open cut on her cheek. It didn't seem to want to close, though it had finally stopped bleeding the day before. It had been a week since the fight, a week since she broke it off officially with Mamoru, and a week since she got the cut. She had been noticing that it wasn't healing, but she also had noticed that she was feeling different. Not sick, but different. Colder almost. Her heartbeat wasn't so obvious to her anymore. She could feel the shell, the barrier, she was creating around herself slowly hardening. She hoped it would some day be impenetrable.

"Usagi!"

"Yes, Mom?" She pulled her hair into a headband and walked down the stairs.

"Your friend, Ami, is here!"

Usagi stopped on the staircase. Why? Why was Ami here? She stepped onto the landing and looked at the blue haired girl by her front door. Ami's short hair cupped her sweet face and her eyes looked at Usagi, calculative, but with a lot of love. Her loose white shirt and jeans were strange to see when Usagi was so used to seeing her in her uniform.

"Ami."

"Hi, Usagi-chan." She smiled, putting her hands behind her back. "How's your cheek?"

"What are you doing here, Ami?" Her voice was monotone, her eyes looking straight at the girl she loved so much.

Ami's eyes flashed hurt. "I wanted to see you. I want to know what's happening. Have you been threatened and that's why you are pushing us away? We should stick together. We're strongest toget—"

"That's bullshit."

Ami gasped. Usagi was staring at her with angry eyes. The blue had become almost clear, like icicles.

"What?"

"That's bullshit. We don't triumph together. Someone is always left behind. People always die. Not anymore. Stop trying to get me to fight with you. It won't happen. Stay out of my way, Ami, and make sure everyone else does. What I said before still stands. I'll kill any who get in my way."

"Why? What's happening to you? You used to have such a big, open heart." The tears were running down Ami's cheek and she softly brushed them away.

"Hah! And that did me so much good, didn't it?" Angrily, Usagi pushed past Ami and opened the door. "All any of you ever did was make fun of me, laugh at me, and leave me. I was the one left behind all the time. I was the one watching you all get hurt. I was the one enduring my boyfriend's silence for a year. None of you cared. Now, I don't care."

Ami walked stiffly through the door, but turned, stopping the closing door. "We love you, Usagi-chan. Please, don't shut us out."

"Love is so powerful and wonderful, right? The power of love will overcome anything?" Usagi threw her head back and laughed, her blond hair shimmering in the autumn sunshine. "I don't think so. I'm not a child. I know none of you give a damn. Don't come by again." She slammed the door in Ami's face, pushing the image of her friend's pained face from her mind. Her cut pulsed as she dropped to her knees in the doorway. This was how it had to be. They never really cared anyway, she heard whispered in her mind.

Usagi stood, her hands in fists. Her heartbeat was calm, her breathing deep and meditative. Right. They never cared anyway. She was powerful. She was the Moon Princess, Serenity. She was Sailor Moon. She wasn't a stupid crybaby. She was going to defeat the new enemy even if she had to step on her so-called friends along the way.

"She said that?" Rei cried in outrage, her broom forgotten and lying on the porch of her shrine.

Ami nodded, looking down at her hands in her lap. "She was so cold and closed off. It was like I was talking to a complete stranger." She brushed more tears from her eyes and looked at the scouts around her. "What do we do?"

"I don't know if we can do anything," Luna sighed from beside Ami, her tail curled around her black paws.

"There has to be!" Minako cried, fighting to hold back her own tears. "Usagi is the glue that holds us together. She is the one that brought us all together. She can't have decided to leave us."

"Maybe this is our fault," Makoto whispered as she leaned against a tree, her brown hair in a ponytail, her arms hugging her sweater tighter to her.

"What do you mean?" Luna looked up at Sailor Jupiter.

"We do laugh at her a lot. We never realized Mamoru wasn't talking to her, none of us asked. We were always fighting around her, never letting her really join. I think, maybe, she grew up that year without Mamoru and none of us saw it."

"So now she's pushing us out?"

Makoto looked over at the other scouts, feeling guilt and sadness rising in her. "Yes. Maybe she's ready to be on her own."

"I think we should contact Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru. I think they will know what to do," Minako suggested as she stood, looking over Tokyo. "This may be our fault, but regardless, we can't give up."

Usagi walked from the dojo, feeling the sweat on her body cooling in the breeze. She loved autumn. She loved the cool air and gorgeous colors of the leaves, everything erupting into a fiery display of color before turning black and white in the winter. She smiled, pulling her bag up onto her shoulder.

"Sailor Moon, we meet again."

Usagi froze, then turned to find Midori standing behind her, a smirk on her face. "Hello, Midori."

"You aren't going to deny your other identity?"
"Why? What would the purpose be? Regardless of whether I'm Sailor Moon or I'm Tsukino Usagi, I'm ready to fight you."

Midori's angel-like face broke into a vicious smile, her sharp white teeth poking out from her red lips. "Good."

She charged Usagi, the blade flashing in the dying sunlight. Usagi threw her bag to the side and kicked Midori's feet out from under, then flipped back, flying through the air with the agility of a bird. It was so freeing to move the way she did. The moment of weightlessness was refreshing.

Midori flipped up off the ground and crouched, eyeing Usagi. "You've grown stronger, Usagi. Good. Good."

"What is it that you want?"

Midori laughed, the sound strangely soft and tinkling. "It isn't what I want. It is what he wants." With that she charged again, the knife flashing in the air. She had to cut her again. She could see the still open cut on her cheek. The more she cut, the more she would taint her.

Usagi sidestepped, punched, kicked, and maneuvered out of Midori's reach. As she flew in the air, out of Midori's reach, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. A top hat, a white mask, and a rose. He stood to the side, watching. Usagi landed, but didn't see the rock beneath her feet. Her ankle twisted and as she fell, she felt the cold slice of the knife through the skin on her arm. She cried out as she hit the dirt and looked up to find Midori floating in the air.

"Still too easily distracted, Usagi." Her laugh remained even after her body disappeared.

Anger surged violently through Usagi. She got up and dusted off her sweat pants.

"Here's your bag."

Usagi yanked it from his hands, threw it over her shoulder, and started walking away.

"You should have a doctor take a look at those cuts, Usako."

She stopped. That name for her was getting to her. Her cuts hurt. She didn't want to listen to him speak or his pet name for her. "Don't call me that. I'm not your girlfriend anymore, Mamoru. Don't come to my rescue again." She felt her heart icing over more with her words. "You're only distracting me. I need to focus so I can defeat her and then whoever she is working for." She looked back him to find him de-transformed. His eyes were sad, his mouth turned into a deep frown.

"Usagi—"

"Please," she said softly. "Don't get in my way. I wont… I'm not going to spare any who get in my way."

She walked away, feeling him watching her. She found that her heart wasn't in so much pain this time. The name bothered her. Usako. No, she couldn't let him call her that. It was creating cracks in her barrier. But maybe… maybe… she should let him in? She could feel doubt begin to creep into her thoughts.

No. She heard the whisper again. He never really loved you. Would he have left if he had? You're more powerful without him. Besides, you're doing this for him. So he can live.

Usagi nodded in agreement, feeling the doubt disappear. He hadn't fought for her. He hadn't fought tooth and nail like she had. He so easily let go. Maybe he didn't really love her. Maybe he just wanted her around so he had someone to kiss, so he wouldn't be lonely. Yeah. That was it.

"Good," he chuckled into the darkness. He could see her heart turning to ice. Soon. Soon he would show her who really loved her, who she really belonged with. He looked at the empty space beside his thrown. Yes, she would be radiant beside his thrown, waiting on him, serving him, belonging to him. He closed his eyes, smiling. Behind his eyelids he could see her golden hair splayed across his pillow. Her eyes open, staring at him, her mouth open while writhing beneath him. She's moan as he takes her over and over again. He opened his eyes again, feeling his arousal straining from the images. Yes, she would be his.

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KuteKitsune21