AN: I know it's not Reni. I have covered this choice of name change in other stories so I'm not going to explain myself here. Go look there.

AN2: I just realized that canon-anime/fanfiction Darien and Andrew are a modern day Darcy and Bingly.

AN3: About the kiss Minako laid on Mamoru, it wasn't romantic. Haven't you ever seen any of those shows/movies/real life when a woman gets so excited about something she kisses the closest person to her? Well, if not, look deeper into pop-culture. It was a thank you kiss, nothing more. She still hates his guts. She would have kissed Beryl if she decided to just walk away after a conversation with the blond and promised Minako that Serenity would be safe forever. That's it, again, not romantic.

–

Chapter 4:

Just Freaking Great

–

He'd lost weight despite his best intentions. The study-work schedule he'd given himself on top of his punishing exercise routine (because he hadn't been needed at a senshi battle in months) had only been a small part of the weight-loss. He barely ate but he did make sure he got all the calories he needed for his new routines. It was the significant sleep deprivation that had contributed the most to his current problems. All those nights, sweating, tossing, turning, throwing up had added up and he could barely recognize himself in the mirror, when he dared to look. He hated who he'd become without Usagi.

While usually unfailingly polite, perhaps too polite as Usagi had mentioned on occasion before all this when he gave a fan-girl a bland smile and turned his attention elsewhere, or helped her up, asked if she was all right before walking away, or even the occasions when he would walk one home and have to avoid awkward goodbyes when the girl thought he wanted more, had all but disappeared now. As long as they left him alone, he was still polite.

If they crossed any lines, he snapped and snarled at them and more than one girl had run away crying. They'd seen the break up with Usagi as a way to get bolder, not that any of them ever really thought it was a real relationship. Relationships like theirs just didn't exist and things definitely didn't happen the way the public saw it happen. Constant fights to instant dating? There had been so much more to it then that. They had all missed the tender moments between Mamoru and Usagi before the memories surfaced of the past.

Everywhere he looked he was reminded in some way of Usagi and he felt like he was going crazy because no one in the entire world shared any of those memories with him. Not even if someone had witnessed a scene because they weren't part of it.

It was like he was fantasizing about the weather girl and thinking that whenever she said anything it was like she was speaking to him but in fact she was talking to the general public at large. That's how he felt, no one else really believed in their love because it was no longer returned, as if it really had never been there in the first place.

He thought he was being so kind in removing it all from Usagi, that he could weather it and handle it but now he was flailing, without her love... he was nothing. He was unable to function, he kept turning to text her or call her or ask her about her opinion on something but there was always empty air. He had well and truly lost her and it was all his doing.

What's more...

Usagi was different. She was no longer the girl he had loved in this life time. He frowned as she interacted with people. While she had always taken things for granted, she had always done it in such a adorable way that disarmed everyone. Now it was as if some other entity was taking over.

Makoto slid into the booth in the back where he had donned his glasses and had a hat on. "Nice touch with the glasses, it's less inconspicuous than sunglasses." He didn't hear any artifice in her voice so he only lifted a brow at her close presence. The senshi had all forgiven him for hurting Usagi, he had taken away that pain in the end, though they hadn't forgotten and didn't want him to get the opportunity to do so again. Those were a hellish 2 months, she had started out handling it so maturely and then she had just disintegrated into a hot mess.

"What do you want Makoto?" He asked, refusing to repeat Usagi's words to him the last two times he got to touch her. There were other ways to express the same idea.

"You need to woo her again." Makoto looked at Usagi fretfully but the girl was talking to another boy and Mamoru clenched his hand around the coffee cup, not at Makoto's words but at Usagi's actions and the boy's audacity to be so close to his Usako. He raised his eyebrow again.

"Oh?" They were startling words. "Why would I do that?"

"She's..." Makoto looked at the blond in question again as another boy brought over a drink for her and a third brought some food. "She's not Usagi."

He already knew that but he couldn't figure out how from this distance. "Oh?"

"She's incorrigible. It's hard to keep track of her these days, it's as if whatever you did to her feelings released a part of her that I've never known. She's skipping around town as if the world is hers and she's getting involved in so many questionable things. Then the boys-" She winced when she saw Mamoru's hand crack the porcelain of the cup he was holding. Thankfully it was just the handle. "I know I shouldn't tell you this part but..."

"What's been going on with the boys?" He demanded. It had all looked fairly innocent from what he'd seen.

"They haven't touched her." Makoto vowed quickly. "We haven't let them and while we're around they keep their distance but-" She waved her hand at the pampering Usagi was getting. "They're always around, like your fan-girls but worse and while you've thankfully ignored all of yours, Usagi's lapping it up as if she's used to it and has been missing it."

"Sounds like she's being treated very well." Mamoru commented putting the handle down onto the table and picking up the cup and felt the heat sear his palm but he ignored it as he took a sip.

"She's demanding all sorts of things from the teachers and everyone in every profession as if expecting them all to bow to her whims. Usually all she has to do is suggest and they do anything for her but now she's straight up commanding them. They still do it but it's unsettling." Makoto bit her lip before continuing. "She's even started ordering us around."

"Sounds like she has finally become self-assured." Which was a bloody wonderful thing in his mind, it meant that he could start thawing the ice blocking him from her. "Why should I care?"

"Because you still love her."

"I'm getting sick of people telling me that when I don't." He lied through clenched teeth.

Makoto shook her head not believing a word. Honestly the girls all read him so easily and yet Usagi had broken down so completely. If she had seen the truth then she would have just given him space and waited for him to come back around, assured in their love. She had waited a lot for him and that's why he did this because he was tired of making her wait, tired of hurting her when he was at fault. She shouldn't have to suffer because of his decisions. She read him so easily normally, in ways that no one else had ever been able to do but with their love she was as unsure as a baby deer standing for the first time. Which is why he had to take it from her. Neither of them believed in their love. He had finally seen the love and the depth of that love but by then it was too late he had already hurt her so badly she would never trust in that love again.

There was only so much their past had to answer for when it came to that and probably a whole lot more rested on his shoulders. He was slow in lowering his walls but he was and she should have seen how much he'd opened up to her.

God his thoughts were spiraling in on themselves and he couldn't follow one train of thought anymore. He rubbed his eyes and tried to focus. "How are her grades?" He asked in curiosity.

Makoto sent him a disbelieving look that this is where he focused on but she knew he'd probably be shocked at her answer. "Straight As."

"Good."

"She earned them but she's doing less studying than she used to. This is what's really worrying me, she knows things that she shouldn't."

Rei slid into the booth across from Mamoru and nodded at Makoto. "You've already told him, great. Will you do it?"

"No." Mamoru gritted his teeth, he didn't want to go into this again and it hurt him to say this but it wasn't time yet to try and get her to love him again, he was starting to see even clearer that he had never deserved her. "She looks like she has plenty of suitors."

"She's just toying with them." Rei glanced over at them with a shudder. "They're just hapless boys in her eyes that are only good enough to serve her. Serenity was never like this. Or at least, I don't remember her being that way. She was always confident of herself and she always went after what she wanted but not like this." Rei repeated herself. "Not like this."

Minako stopped at their table and frowned at Rei and Makoto. "We'd decided that wasn't the best plan. There's got to be another way." She looked at Mamoru and scowled. "You're not going near her."

"No, of course not." Though the other two were finally starting to get through to Mamoru, if she was so different, maybe he had done something to her that had adverse side-effects, maybe he had caused more harm than he had realized, took away part of her that was essentially her.

"You decided, the three of us overrode you. Luna and Artemis were in a lock and so we won the argument." Rei swept her hair behind her back with a well timed flick.

Minako spared a glance behind her and Usagi had finally noticed her three companions were at the table with Mamoru and she tilted her head in confusion. "She doesn't even smile the way she used to, it's as if it's all a show."

"She's mad about something." Rei agreed. "We thought she was back to her carefree ways after you erased her feelings but you must have missed something or did something too much because she's not Usagi and she's not Serenity but some weird combination of the two and yet with traits she never had before."

Mamoru was done with this conversation, they had confirmed his newest worst fears and yet it didn't change anything about why he did it. "She's eating." He said as he gathered up his books. "She's sleeping." He slid out the other side of the booth and stood. "She's happy and alive. That's all that matters." He swept up his books. "She's doing better in school and she's confident in battles and in herself. It's exactly the way it should be."

"If this goes on too much longer, she won't be the Usagi you love, you won't even recognize her and it might end up being too late to get her back!" Rei called out with one last desperate shout.

Mamoru knew she was probably right, and while he had the ability to manipulate her past, that's what caused them to get to this point in the first place. He wouldn't remove anything about these last few months to get her back to the starting point, if he did then it would ruin all the sacrifices he made for her and she would die.

Yet the next day he saw her with her newest fan-club and a boy was laying her books out for her on the counter. Hell, he walked up to her just to test a theory and smiled charmingly at her.

She looked at him but looked right through him and cocked her head to the side and gave a slow smile, but not the ones he remembered. "Buy me a milkshake."

He stared at her as he realized exactly what concerned the others about this new attitude, that was definitely neither Serenity nor Usagi. It was like she was lashing out at them all without knowing why or even that she was doing it. He swallowed back that knowledge and shook his head. "No." Then he walked away and he felt something bounce against the back of his head but it was soft and he turned to look at the plushie on the floor, someone, a girl this time scrambled to pick it up and bring it back to Usagi. She was acting very much like a self-entitled brat of a queen at the moment. She embodied almost everything he hated about royalty in the Silver Millennium, something she had never done before. He knew she wasn't a doll that he could control or move or a character in a book that he could manipulate and change at will for no reason at all but he did have special abilities and he had probably over-corrected something along the way and he would try to set things right. She would hate herself if she could see how she was acting. She wasn't even startled at her tantrum moment, she just looked at him bored.

He turned away again but not before he missed the sadness sneak into her eyes and when his head whipped around to look at her, it was gone and the boredom was back.

She really did have no control over it, she was definitely unconsciously lashing out. Or there might have been something more... something else was off, he just couldn't figure it out until he got closer to her. Something this time around seemed unlikely to be as easily done.

He often sat in her tree and watched her sleep but the last few weeks had been torture, knowing that if she woke and saw him there, there wouldn't be a moment's hesitation, she'd probably scream the house down. Well... maybe... with the attitude she just displayed she might tease him a bit before shutting the window and then pulling the blinds.

So because he was unsure how she'd react, he decided that he would start watching her again. He never felt more like a creepy stalker but he kept telling himself it was to see how she was sleeping now. See if anything was bothering her sleep.

That night when he watched her sleep, he noticed that Luna got forced out of her bed and now had a special cat bed for her to sleep in. It looked stately and nice, he noted, and that was something nice Usagi did for someone else, even if part of her did it just to get Luna out of her bed. Yet, she could have just kicked Luna off and told her to find somewhere else to sleep. Instead she made sure Luna was comfortable. Oddly it was something that the Usagi he knew and loved wouldn't have done. She would have either let Luna continue sleeping with her or she'd have kicked Luna off and told her to sleep on the window bench or go find one of the other girls if she was mad at the cat. It wouldn't have even entered her mind to do this.

After about an hour of the moon streaming into the window and lightening up the space, Mamoru started to lose feeling in his legs and moved them around. Another hour and he'd go home and sleep. While he did like watching her sleep, he'd rather do it in the bed with her than the pervy way most girls seemed to faun over and only when he woke up before her or remained awake after she fell asleep. Not like this, not this intentional almost clinical way he was doing it right now.

A half hour later the moon had shifted in the sky and had just barely reached the room when clouds cut off even that last moment of light. He sighed, maybe now that he didn't have an aid in seeing into the room he should go home. Usagi used to sleep with a nightlight but that childish, sweet, dependent trait was gone now with her new found self-assurance. She slept the way she always had, in rounds. Sometimes she was peaceful, sometimes she was dreaming happy things like riding a unicorn along a rainbow made of ice cream and she was the cause for the rainbow disappearing as she and others ate it. Sometimes she had nightmares about the fights and the creatures she'd seen, the lives she'd had to end. Sometimes they'd be fears of the future or nightmares related to school. Except for the fights, it was all normal things.

Something shimmered in the air and the longer he sat there, the more he saw it. He was distracted by the shimmer, trying to figure out what it was and what was causing it that it took him far too long to realize that Usagi's once peaceful dream disappeared completely, she was now deathly still and the shimmer was touching her.

Luna didn't stir, Luna in fact looked as completely still as Usagi though there wasn't a shimmer over her. Then when the light of the moon completely faded, the shimmer took shape and there was a man standing over Usagi. Mamoru pushed himself to his feet and by the time he was completely upon them he was Kamen and already moving forward. There was a man in Usagi's bedroom! He was touching her too!

The window opened with a whisper but it was enough to gain the man's attention and seeing who it was, he didn't back off, instead he just grinned and leaned down even as Kamen lunged for him. The man's mouth touched Usagi's and Kamen hit the far wall with a thud, he was alone and the man was still there, still kissing her.

Kamen growled and attempted to grab the man but his hands went through him. There was a noise from Usagi's parents' bedroom and the man laughed as he straightened up and turned towards Kamen.

"Silly Endymion, I'm not really here. Not yet at least but once she is ready, I will be too." He disappeared the way he came, in a shimmer and Kamen dove out the window and slid it shut and took off for the neighbor's roof. He had just hid behind the chimney when the lights in Usagi's room went on and there was a commotion as Usagi woke up in a panic, echoing the panic in her parents' voice. Her dad had a tennis racket in his hand, or maybe that was for badminton? Kamen didn't know, he didn't play either, he'd thought it was a little too cliché.

Kamen would be back tomorrow night and every night until he could figure out a way to stop the man. If he was unable to stop him from kissing Usagi for awhile he'd just have to take that as his punishment. Though she wouldn't be very pleased about it either, it wasn't like she chose for the man to kiss her and in her mind she was probably losing her first kiss to this stranger.

Luna woke a little slower and Kamen wondered as the Tsukino household slowly separated and everyone went back to bed, if they had been magically drugged or something. It was terrifying how still Usagi had been.

At least it explained part of the reason why Usagi was acting so strangely.

–

The next night, instead of just waiting in the tree for the stranger to come, Kamen slid into the room and Luna woke up with a hiss. "Calm down, the girls asked me to do this." Well... they had sort of asked him to do so. "But you need to be quiet." He wouldn't get the chance to do so if Usagi was awake. He knelt by her bed and watched her eyes move behind her eyelids as she was deep into a dream. His lowered his head to hers and thought about all the memories he'd stolen and tried to push them back into Usagi the same way he had taken them as he pressed his lips to hers.

Unlike when he'd taken them or the feelings, she woke startled after a few seconds but it was no use, he wasn't able to get the memories to go from him into her and she started thrashing and hitting him and so with his mouth still attached to hers took this memory away as well. She collapsed onto the bed and he disappeared into the tree before she woke up, he forgot to close the window and he winced as she noticed it too.

She glanced at it but with a shrug she turned and went back to sleep. Normal people couldn't climb the tree and normal people couldn't get from it to the window. Luna came up to it though and closed it halfway. "Nice going, idiot." Then she closed it all the way and locked it. Kamen came forward in a panic, she couldn't lock it! If the man came back- but Luna tilted over just as his fingers gripped the window, she and Usagi were now both in that forced state of sleep.

This time as he watched the man didn't even hesitate, he reached out and pushed Usagi onto her back and his mouth latched onto hers. Kamen would have banged on the window but he didn't want to wake her family again. Instead he forced himself to watch when he would rather rest his forehead against the frame and close his eyes willing it to be over. The man stayed there for a long time, his fingers slid from Usagi's upper arm across her shoulder and then slid along her neck to the back of her head and lifted her slightly to get a different angle.

All the while, Usagi didn't move a single muscle or tick. He had to tell the girls about this, he thought that he could handle it on his own by forcing the memories back in but he couldn't. While the fights were pretty tame in comparison to all the others they'd had, this was the real danger that Usagi was in and Kamen had no idea how to protect her from it.

It didn't last nearly as long as it felt. Kamen noted that it was only five minutes but once the man left, Usagi started tossing and turning in her sleep as if fighting something physically. She grabbed the blanket and clung onto it with both hands fisting and she ripped her arms wide but hadn't let go of the blanket and so didn't get far. She groaned in her sleep and brought her hands to her head, the groan turning to a moan and Kamen watched as the door opened and a pink haired child crawled into the bed with Usagi. Kamen had no idea who that little girl was and he would have pounded the window out if she had done anything but soothe Usagi. She put her hands to Usagi's head even as Usagi wrapped her arms around the small body and then Usagi settled down into her normal sleep pattern.

Kamen breathed out slowly, the little girl, whoever she was, had helped Usagi. That was something.

–

The next day he showed up at Rei's shrine at 6 a.m. not having slept since he camped out on Usagi's tree two night previous. Well technically probably longer than that then. Rei had already been up for an hour when he appeared and she looked at him curiously. "Did you already return her memories? I would have thought that she would have been calling me the second she got them back."

Mamoru shook his head. "If she had gotten them back, it would hopefully be like she never lost them in the first place." He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "We have a problem, two probably, or rather two more at least."

"Do you think I need to call a meeting?" Rei was already reaching for the communicator but Mamoru stopped her with his words.

"Luna was the one against me returning her memories, wasn't she?"

Rei scratched her head as she looked away from him. "Yeah, but she's come around. The only hold out still is Minako."

"Which is why I didn't invite her. Makoto's phone went to voicemail, which isn't a surprise considering what time I called and I said that I was coming here at this time but I doubt she'll make it. Ami was already awake at 4 a.m. and she should be here any minute. We knew you'd be up by now."

"You're starting to worry me." Rei held the broom in her hands tighter, she seemed to always have that broom just as Motoki always seemed to be wiping down counters.

"Worrying me too, actually." Makoto's voice sounded just as tired as she looked. She hadn't even bothered putting on real clothes, she just came in her sleep outfit, which happened to be loose cotton gym shorts and an oversized T-shirt. Mamoru looked away when he realized she wasn't wearing a bra. "Did you even try to return her memories?"

He wanted to wait for Ami to arrive so he only had to explain this once but he also knew these girls deserved to hear this as quickly as possible. "I did, she hit me instead. It didn't work. Though I think I may know why. Even if it's not the reason, it is still cause for serious concern."

"Then let's hear it." Ami's voice was clear and she was vibrating with energy. She was about the only one, and the other three looked at her as they realized that Ami could be just as hyper as Usagi, they just usually missed it because most of them were still sleeping or were not around when she had full energy. Or maybe it might have been the coffee. They couldn't be sure either way.

Rei lead the way into one of the rooms that wouldn't be in use. The shrine was usually the busiest at this time of the day and it was today as well but most people were already inside or in the back. She had been sweeping the front steps to remove all the dirt they trekked in on their shoes. The shoes were taken off just before the last step and she had gotten halfway done when Mamoru showed up. She showed them in and then went and shoved the broom into Yuichiru's hands and told him to redo all of them now that the rest had tracked dirt up as well.

They all sat but Mamoru held up his hands to ward off their questions. "I know you all want to know what's being done but there are more pressing matters at hand and I feel you need to know about them first. I'm not sure how long it's been going on but it's been at least 2 nights." Mamoru swallowed, this was hard to say and even harder to recall. "There's been a strange presence in Usagi's room."

"Oh, that's Reni." Rei waved off. "She's Usagi's cousin and is staying indefinitely until her parents sort out the marital problems they've been having. Something to do with money, I suspect from what Usagi's mentioned."

"Oh, ok." Mamoru hadn't meant her quite yet but that explained a lot. "Kenji's niece or Ikuko's?"

The girls shared a look and shrugged. "It's never come up. She might not even be blood related but darn those two not only look alike but also showcase some of the same traits." Makoto was the one who spoke. Which could have been odd because Usagi looked nothing like the rest of her family, taking more after her long dead mamma in the sky. She did behave similar to her current family at times though. "Now-"

"No, that's not the presence I had meant originally. This one is very dangerous. A month ago I warned Minako that a danger was going to befall your princess and how she needed to be prepared to face it because it would attack her insecurities. Minako waved me off unconcerned."

"She did mention something to us in passing but she seemed amused that it was coming from you." Rei shrugged. "At the time we were all pretty pissed off at you so we ignored it. What's happened?"

"Two nights ago I was watching her sleep."

"Cree-per!" Makoto whistled.

Mamoru ignored the jeer. "I wanted to figure out what was going on with her, thinking it might have to do with her sleep. Turns out, I was right. Just as the moon was no longer able to permeate her room with its glow, a shimmer appeared which became a man and I tried to tackle him away from her but I ended up going straight through him. I tried to grab him, but the same problem. He kissed her, and yes- this was felt. Then last night I tried to return her memories with a kiss and she hit me instead when she woke up to find me there. I was hoping that if I returned her memories then there would be no room in her brain for him to do anything. I can't be sure but I do think he's manipulating her mind."

"There are so many things to say to that. First of all you decided that to combat some stranger kissing her in her sleep and forcing thoughts and memories into her, you thought that it was best to do the same exact thing?" Makoto leaned forward as if she wanted to smash his face into the floor again and again until she knocked some sense into him.

Rei snorted as she picked up where Makoto left off. "Probably the only reason he's able to manipulate her mind is because you left such giant gaping holes in there when you did the same thing earlier. He probably would have never been able to touch her if she hadn't had someone she trusted do it to her first."

Mamoru buried his head into his hands and groaned. "I know, I messed up badly, ok? You don't need to keep hitting me over the head with it. I already feel awful enough as it is. Ow!"

He looked up to see who had physically hit him over the head and both brunettes glanced at Ami as the culprit. Three months ago and he would have never thought her capable, but now he was far too aware of what she could do and would for her friend. He rubbed the back of his head where she had hit him and she was contemplating something deeply. "That was because no matter the pain you're going through or how bad you feel, it will never make up for what you've done to the completely innocent party you demolished again."

"It hasn't always been my fault." He defended and he had to duck to avoid three hands coming after the back of his head. They just followed his path and the combined force did end up slamming his head against the floor and he face planted and his nose broke. He steeled himself and forced down the nausea that threatened to become more than that as he ran his fingers along the bridge of his nose and realigned it properly. It would heal soon enough.

No one apologized.

"What is it Ami?" Rei finally asked when the blunette fell back into silence even as the rest of them discussed potential actions.

Ami shook her head. "I'm not sure yet. Maybe it didn't work because she was asleep when you tried it? Or maybe you have to go through the steps backwards?"

"You mean give her back her feelings first?" Makoto asked clutching a pillow against her chest. "I don't know..."

"I still think he has to seduce her again." Rei cut in.

"I never seduced her!" Mamoru protested and moved out of way when three sets of eyes turned to him to shut up. "I never did! Honest! If I had do you really think I would have hung around after getting what I wanted from her body?"

He ducked and blocked the projectiles aimed for his head.

"What I felt for her, what I feel for her is completely legitimate and real. I love her so deeply there isn't a part of me that isn't touched by her. I have been completely absorbed by her that there is nothing in my life without her. I broke up with her to save her life." He had never spoken like that or had shared his feelings or explained himself to anyone before but he was laying himself on his sword here to protect the woman he loved and he needed their help to do so. Sure they would have helped him save her life anyway but he wanted her back eventually too and they would help him figure out how to do so.

The senshi stared at him with a bit of an open mouth expression and then they snapped back to what they were doing before he had laid it all bare and continued talking about potential plans. They decided that they would watch the interactions for themselves, sure that Mamoru had done something wrong and that they would be able to interact with the mysterious man in their princess's room.

Mamoru just stared at each and everyone of them, watching them move and talk and completely ignore his soliloquy and basically continued to ignore him without so much as a by your leave or thanks for bringing this to their attention.

Eventually he just sat back with his arms crossed over his chest and listened to all that they had to say. He never in a million years thought he would say this but after the last year he realized that there were several holes in their plans, not that they wouldn't eventually think of the solution but they were missing three vital members of their team. Minako often offered up some urbane and ridiculous comment that seemed completely worthless at the time but was the perfect spring board to a worthwhile idea or thought built upon what she said, even if it was the complete opposite of her point. When she was being Minako that was. When she was being Venus she had some very sound tactical ideas and thoughts.

Usagi and Luna were also very important to this discussion but in other ways but it was hard to include them when they were the victims. Besides, at the moment it wasn't a question of morality but recon and while Usagi was adorable in her attempts at stealth, she really only managed to uncover the problem by angering or stumbling upon the enemy but days of going undercover? Not really possible. She didn't have the patience for it. And now with Usagi being so different from her usual self, he didn't know how she would handle those situations now.

So it had been agreed upon, once Usagi was asleep, he would call the senshi and they would come over and join him in the tree and they'd all watch or interact as need be.

He called them and they said they were on their way but as he watched Usagi get practically molested in her sleep by the man for another five minutes, not doing anything more than what he had done the night before, the girls never showed up. It was only after the man disappeared and the pink haired child returned again that the girls finally made it.

"You're too late." He hissed as they climbed the tree and watched Usagi and Reni sleep. It was kind of precious too.

"We came when you called but-" Jupiter bit her bottom lip to try and figure it out. "I was on someone's balcony making my way here but I found myself seconds after landing it with my body half over the railing, dangling dangerously but my boot had caught the grates and so I hadn't fallen."

"I was in the middle of a roof, face down and had to push myself up onto my feet again but it hadn't felt like any time had passed." Mars continued with her own explanation.

Mercury conveniently didn't explain where she had found herself, it was probably something embarrassing and nobody pressed. "It was five minutes, I checked."

"How could you possibly- Never mind, I don't want to know." It was Ami, you should never question her about what she knew or how she came about it. Mamoru wisely closed his mouth.

"So it seems we are like Luna, once the moon no longer touches Usagi's room while she's asleep, we all pass out."

"Well it's good to know that she isn't the only victim in this mess. But why does Mamoru stay awake?" Mars asked.

"Because he wants to torture me with this image, night after night. He's probably annoyed it took me so long to come see. The look he gave me the first night was a clear indicator of his feelings for me." Mamoru ran his hands over his face, trying to bring some life back to it and hide the frustration building and tightening his features and the sheen in his eyes.

Mars patted him on the back. "We'll find a way around this. What if she sleeps over at my place tomorrow? There's no windows in the fireroom, perhaps the moon offers him the gateway?"

"Or maybe the moon keeps him back." Mercury countered and they talked about it for a bit.

Finally Jupiter cut in. "We'll try both, it's not like it's really hurting her so far, right? It's just tiny changes each day. No moon at Rei's and then we'll have a camp out but with no tents, it'll be fine."

It was not fine.

–

Both nights were huge leaps forward in Usagi's irritability and temperament changes. She seemed almost scared now as she looked around the room as if waiting for someone to appear. Sometimes there would be a hopeful look on her face and other times a look of disgust would cross her features as if she didn't know or understand her actions.

They sent her home after that and things seemed to slow down again but the damage was done. "We'll have to try and keep her awake or wake her up the moment the moon starts to leave her room."

"The moon did keep it at bay then?"

"Yes, we thought for sure there would be a peaceful night's sleep on the roof but then the moon shifted away in the last hour before dawn and we came to with her screaming in her sleep. We tried everything from waking her up to hugging her and trying to talk and say soothing things. Nothing worked. She eventually settled down herself but it was as if she had finally accepted the memories or whatever he did to her whereas before she had been fighting it."

"When she woke up we asked her about them, noting that she woke us up with the screams. She had no idea what we were talking about."

"We asked her much later if there was anything new in her life but she just pouted and said 'no, just waiting for the prince to come back, like every day'."

Mamoru raised an eyebrow sure he had erased all memories and thoughts of princes, even casual mentions from the girls on the moon. "What does that mean?"

"Beats us, she didn't elaborate as if we were already supposed to know what she was talking about."

"He's... whatever he's doing... he's not doing it as smoothly as you undid it."

"I removed real memories. It seems as if he's creating new ones and those are harder to force into the holes without knowing what was once there to begin with." Mamoru seemed calm on the outside but on the inside he was just raging, if he were to act how he felt, the entire place would be a disaster from him throwing things and tearing things apart and putting his fist through the drywall among other parts.

The others nodded. "You can tell because while she looks around in hope one minute, there's a fear she can't hide the next. It's almost as if she doesn't know what to feel about this man." Ami commented.

"If it's even about him." Makoto inserted. "We really don't know what memories she's been given, just vague hints here and there."

"Who else would it be of?" Rei asked, not putting down Makoto's idea but asking honestly, afraid that they were overlooking something important. Makoto glanced unsure at Mamoru.

"Bad memories of me?" Mamoru asked skeptically. "He wouldn't really create those, just uncover them and leave only them. I did try to kill her at least once."

"Does he know that though? And even so, it's easier to create new memories of you as the villain rather than risk bringing her feelings back too."

"She still doesn't even know who I am, just the guy who is sometimes at Motoki's arcade." Mamoru denied and the girls had to give him that. Usagi didn't look on him with fear in her eyes nor did she look at him as if he was what caused everything to work. Not like she had a few months ago.

"No, no, I think Mamoru's right, there's no need to draw attention to the man who used to hold Usagi's heart so completely, then there's the fear of that happening again and this time he'd be the one that introduced them." Ami shook her head. "Better to leave him as a nameless, faceless void then to give it any kind of shape to hold on to. No offense."

"None taken." Mamoru couldn't even be sarcastic about it because he had caused the whole mess.

"So what do we do now?" Makoto asked looking around at the three faces at the table with her.

"Well first, we try to keep her up all night and hope that nothing knocks us all out when the moon disappears."

"If that fails?" Rei was certain it would, if the man could knock the senshi and Luna out cold but leave Mamoru wide awake then he'd be able to get the sleeper of the group to sleep.

"Then we have to do the most dangerous thing of all." Ami's voice got darker and lower pitched as if telling a scary story and they all leaned in closer to hear what it could possibly be. "We have to get Usagi to fall back in love with Marmou."

Mamoru would have smashed his face into the table right then and there if it hadn't been something he had wanted in earnest.