First update of the New Year. Have a good one folks :) Thanks once again to people who reviewed last chapter:

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Updated 23/07/2014 - After this point, chapters without this prefix will not follow on chronologically.

"I just don't get where all these youma are actually coming from," V panted, landing on top of a table, barely noticing the restaurant patrons cowering beneath, "I mean, you'd think with Metallia gone they'd have shut up shop." She shrieked and leapt to the next table, narrowly avoiding a plate that had been thrown at her head.

"I've said it more than once," Endymion shouted at her, "We need to keep one alive long enough for Zoizite to get here, then he can scan it to see if it actually is a youma, which I'm still not convinced it is."

"Whatever," Minako waved a hand, "This would still be about fifty times easier if Sailor Mercury could actually transform."

I never said it wouldn't," he said through gritted teeth as he leapt onto the youma's back and wrapped his arms around it's neck so that he didn't slip off, "But still, keep it alive this time, please?"

"I know, I know!" she leapt down and flicked a couple of buttons on her communicator. She listened for a couple of seconds, rolled her eyes and then clicked it off again, "She says he's on his way."

"That's what she said last time," Endymion said seconds before the youma threw him off its back, causing him to crash into the wall. A nearby door banged open and Minako screeched, "About time! Get on with it." Zoisite leapt over her and drew the Mercury computer from a pocket, typing away (although he was slower than Ami, for he was still getting to grips with the thing).

"It isn't a youma," he said, "It's something new, as in I've never seen in before, not even in the past life."

"That should not be allowed," Minako muttered, "Have you got a reading?"

"I've got enough, yeah."

"Finally! Crescent super beam!" she shouted, pointing her finger straight at the thing which roared in anger, but did not stop. Instead, it turned towards her, its eyes flashing red.

"Zoi!" Zoisite shouted, conjuring and throwing the dagger which merely bounced off its armoured hide.

"You're efforts are useless," the voice echoed through the room as they came to a stop, followed by a soft giggle, "Although I will be the first to admit they are amusing. On the other hand, time is running short. We of the black moon give you one week to surrender the rabbit, or we will annihilate the whole of Tokyo."

There was a flash and the creature vanished, leaving the stunned Sailor V gaping at nothing other than the air. She shook her head and turned away, kneeling down to help the civilians out from under tables. A short distance away she could see Endymion and Zoisite doing the same thing, but there was one table they all steered clear of, afraid that the person cowering under it would see through the magic that disguised their identities. If anyone could, it would be Usagi. Finally, Minako knew she had no choice but to help her out.

Bending down, she lifted the tablecloth and put on her best Stepford Smile when she saw Usagi wrapped in Motoki's arm. She was very suddenly glad that she hadn't left Mamoru to help them. "The coast is clear," she said, flashing them a V, "It's safe to come out now." Motoki nodded gratefully and crawled out before turning and helping Usagi to her feet.

"Thank you," Usagi said, her eyes wide as she took in Sailor V. "Umm," she said after a moment, "do you know Sailor Moon? Is she going to come fight the monsters too?" the questions stung Minako more than she would have expected.

"I did know her," she said shortly, "But she's gone now." She turned and followed Endymion and Zoisite from the room, leaving Usagi with the distinct feeling that she should have kept her mouth shut.

"I need an ice pack," Minako moaned, collapsing onto the sofa, "Or some frozen peas. Just something cold."

"My peas aren't frozen, but I have an emergency ice pack," Makoto laughed, heading for the freezer. When she came back, holding the ice pack wrapped in a towel, Ami was scowling at the Mercury Console. "Anything?" she asked as she handed Minako the peas.

"The console's analysed the data Zoisite collected, and he was right it's not a youma."

"So what is it then?" Mamoru asked from where he stood by the window.

"The console's dubbed it a droid."

"What, like in Star wars?" Zoisite was frowning – pop culture was still new to him.

"Erm, no." Minako said, "Did you see any wires, or laser guns? What about light sabres because you know they'd be pretty handy about now."

There was a sudden loud bleep and Makoto glanced down at her phone. "Hey, Rei says we should turn the news on."

"Not again," Minako moaned, "They always do such awful coverage – you'd think we were attacking Tokyo the way they go on."

"There were witnesses this time though," Mamoru pointed out, "This could turn things in our favour."

"The only thing people want is Sailor Moon," Minako snapped, "And we can't give them that." The screen flickered to life and they all turned to it as Makoto found the right channel.

"…this reporter was in fact in the restaurant at the time of the attack. I had just started my meal when there was an almighty crash from the kitchens and upon turning to see what on Earth was going on the diners saw the… monster," the reporter shook his head as though he almost didn't believe what he was saying himself, "Most people froze, just unable to move, and I think if it were not for the timely arrival of 'Sailor V' there would have been many more injuries."

"Well at least they're getting it right this time," Minako shrugged.

"The first thing she did when she got there was to get people under the tables, where they were sheltered from the worst of the youma's – that's what she called it – attacks. Soon another appeared on the scene, and V referred to him as Endymion…"

"Bet you're glad no one remembers the dorky tuxedo you used to wear," Minako winked at Mamoru. The reporter went on to detail the remainder of the attack, but Minako had already zoned out, concentrating instead on positioning the frozen peas over the large bruise on her shoulder. When she looked back she yelped, "why was he talking to Usagi?"

"If you'd been paying attention," Mamoru said scathingly, "You'd know he asked her what it was you said to her before you left."

"Ohh," Minako said, "What did she say?"

"She just repeated what you said to her," Makoto shrugged, "But if you look at it out of context it sounds as though Sailor Moon died or something."

"Well she did."

"Sort of," Minako shrugged, "We all died and we're still here."

"I didn't die."

"Lucky for you," Minako said as lightly as she could manage, not looking at Ami.

"Iif there really is something new behind these droids we're going to have to let Usagi know," Ami said suddenly. "They said they were after the rabbit, and who else could they mean?"

"I've been thinking about that," Minako said, "But I still think we should leave her out of it as long as we can. You can tell just looking at her how much the fighting changed her – she's a completely different person."

"I don't know," Makoto sighed, "Mamoru, what do you think?"

"I think… I think we should leave her alone for now," Minako didn't need to be the goddess of love to see the pain that simple sentence had caused him, "She's happy, right?"

"I guess so," Makoto said, "But it's hard sometimes, doing this without her. She knew what she was doing and, much as I loathe admitting it, most of the time we were just guessing."

"Usagi, fetch your cousin for dinner."

"Kay," Usagi leapt up from the bed, hiding the manga she had been reading under her pillow, and heading to the bottom of the stairs to the attic. "Chibiusa," she shouted, "Dinner's ready." She waited until she heard a chair scrape upstairs and turned to go down to the kitchen.

"Glad you're eating at home tonight then?" Kenji asked, glancing up from his paper, "We'll have to keep an eye on the sort of places that boy takes you in future."

"Dad, he has a name," Usagi rolled her eyes as she took her usual seat by Shingo.

"A name I choose not to use."

"Kenji," Ikuko scolded him lightly, "He's Usagi's first real boyfriend. At least pretend to like him, for me?" Kenji didn't reply, merely shaking his head as he turned back to the paper.

"Written anything interesting lately?" Usagi asked.

"No," he shook his head, "All anyone wants to read about are the sailor senshi and only the big names land those stories."

"You never know, maybe one day," Ikuko said brightly, "Where did your cousin get to?" she headed to the door and shouted, "Chibiusa? Come on in before it gets cold." Usagi watched, smiling, as the little head of pink hair made its way around the table and clambered onto the seat next to her. The conversation over dinner wasn't particularly mind blowing; Kenji read the paper, Usagi argued over something stupid with Shingo and Chibiusa got fussed over by Ikuko, so there was nothing out of the ordinary. When everyone had finished, Usagi's father retreated to the study to work on an article while Ikuko made Shingo give Chibiusa a turn on his games console, leaving Usagi to help with the washing up.

She helped willingly enough, laughing and chatting with Ikuko as they went. Before she went to bed that night Usagi shared fifteen minutes with her and a mug of hot chocolate before exchanging a hug and heading upstairs. Of everyone she knew there was no one Usagi trusted more than her mother. Ikuko knew everything about Usagi's life; she'd never had a secret big enough to keep from her. Once she had cleaned her teeth she headed past the steps up to Chibiusa's room and stopped as she heard snuffling. Frowning, she headed up and knocked gently on the door. "Chibiusa?" she whispered, "Chibiusa are you ok?" she pushed the door open and saw her cousin lying curled up at the end of her bed, fists balled and face scrunched up. She hurried across the room and shook her gently, "Chibiusa wake up. Chibiusa it's just a dream." The little girl woke with a jerk, her red eyes wide as she took a deep shuddering breath. "What were you dreaming about?" Usagi asked as she sat up.

"About mum and dad," Chibiusa said, her eyes filling with tears.

"Aww, they'll come to get you soon, right? How long are you here for?"

"I don't know."

"Well it won't be too long – I mean I know it's summer now, but there's only a couple of weeks left until school restarts, and be honest you're gonna be better off than I am," she threw a hand over her face, "I don't know how – I sure as hell don't remember revising – but Mugen academy it is!" Chibiusa giggled, leaning against Usagi.

"Do you think you can get back to sleep now?" Chibiusa nodded and lay down once more as Usagi headed out the door. Chibiusa giggled as she heard the distinct sound of Usagi tumbling to the bottom of the stairs, but her smile disappeared as she drifted into uneasy dreams about a crystal city and the coming darkness.

Usagi picked herself up, scowling, and headed into her room. "Hey Luna," she smiled, stroking the cat absentmindedly. "Chibiusa's having a bad dream – maybe you should go sleep with her tonight," she wandered towards the wardrobe, "You're good with that sort of stuff." Luna sat up, confused, her head cocked slightly to one side.

"Usagi?" she said softly.

"Who said that?" Usagi said, whirling around, her eyes scanning the room.

"Mew," Luna said lamely.

"Silly cat," Usagi giggled, "I could have sworn… never mind. Go on," she gave Luna a little push and set about getting ready for bed. She had barely been asleep ten minutes when there was a faint rustle in the tree outside the window. She rolled over in her sleep, a name slipping out of her dream. It was a shame that the young man clad in black upon the branch outside could not hear as she murmured, "Endymion."

"Moon power, make up!" Minako breathed deep as the power of the Sailor V transformation washed across her skin. She landed gracefully upon the arcade roof, ready to attack the youma below. All things considered they were lucky that they hadn't attacked the arcade until now – the droids had been concentrating upon highly populated areas and a lot of the time managed to attack shortly after Usagi had left and, this time and the time before, while she was still there.

It was clear, to Minako at least, that Usagi was the rabbit they were after. She jumped down onto the street level and was relieved to see the distant forms of Zoisite and Endymion leaping towards her. Knowing that they would be there soon she ran into the arcade, ducking just in time as one of the stools from the bar was thrown at her head.

"Crescent boomerang!" she shouted, throwing the compact across the room at the droid. Of all her attacks, this one wasn't particularly powerful, but it served as a distraction until Mamoru and Zoisite showed up; Minako wasn't stupid and she knew she couldn't defeat this thing on her own.

"Smoking bomber!" the golden energy flew from the door as Mamoru ran in, flinging himself onto the counter in order to get a better view of things. Most of the arcade's patrons were huddled in the corner, Usagi included, while Motoki and Unazuki were now behind Mamoru.

"Zoisite, protect them," Mamoru jerked his head towards the corner and Zoisite nodded, running head down straight at the droid before ducking to the floor and sliding under its legs, coming up in front of the civilians.

"Crescent super beam!" Minako shouted, just as Zoisite yelled, "Zoi!" throwing the dagger not at the droid, but to the space between it and Minako, meaning that her attack hit it in mid-air. The dagger shone furiously bright and flew straight at the droid, burying itself deep within. The droid roared in anger as the yellow light spread across its leathery hide, and then exploded in a gush of sparks. "Thank Selene," Minako moaned. She had run straight there from Makoto's apartment when Rei, who was also in the corner as she was still unable to transform, had contacted her. Her legs were sore.

"I'm going to need the longest bath the world has ever seen," she griped, wincing. Her arms and front were speckled with tiny burns where the sparks had made contact with her skin and they were more than a little painful. Zoisite saw the wince and his eyes narrowed.

"You're hurt again?"

"It's nothing," she muttered, turning to the door and heading into the street.

"Go," Mamoru said to Zoisite, "I'll sort things out here." Zoisite followed her, adjusting his green mask to ensure it properly covered his face.

"Minako, you can't go on like this."

"They're just a few burns," she snapped, "Nothing important."

"Minako in the months since I've joined up you've broken more than a few bones, you're constantly coming out of the attacks bruised and bloodied and if I'm honest I'm not the only one worried about you."

"Well fat lot of good its doing," Minako snapped, "the others don't have their henshin pens – they got lost with the Moon Sceptre."

"Then you need to face the facts," Zoisite snapped, "Sailor Moon is going to have to be told about what's going on sooner or later and the way things are going I'd say sooner is by far the better option."

"No," Minako shouted, whirling to face him, "She's my best friend Zoisite, I'm not doing that to her."

"Because it's so terrible?" he said softly, "This is not up to you alone Minako. If you keep going this way, it's going to kill you." He paused, "Again."

"You would know," she spat, "if I remember rightly last time I died it was because you were trying to kill me!"

"And I still have the scars to prove it!" he shouted, "I am not proud of any of the things I did with Beryl, but I know that it wasn't my choice, I understand why you did that. I know you remember the attack, the burning but you know what? I do too. He pulled back a grey sleeve and showed her the still only semi healed blisters, "Shitennou don't heal the way senshi do. We can't just pop back from the dead."

"The silver crystal-"

"Maybe it did resurrect Kunzite and Nephrite," Zoisite spoke over her, "But I was still alive at the time, just like Ami. I was there for your princess when you weren't and if I'm honest I think you resent that."

"I don't… I wasn't… I didn't mean…" Minako's voice trailed off as she scrabbled for the right words.

"You don't want Sailor Moon around because you're afraid you'll fail her again. Well in leaving her unprotected you're already doing a bang up job. Congratulations."

Wake up call for Minako there :)