As soon as Ken and Serena got home, they were attacked by their mothers. Both were running around when they got there, making sure they didn't forget to pack anything.
"Ken honey, don't forget to pack your you-know-whats. Don't leave anything embarrassing behind sweet pea"
Ken groaned. His mother was a wonderful person, but she knew how to embarrass him quite easily. Serena just laughed. She remembered her aunt had called Ken 'sweet pea' in front of some girls who were trying to get Ken's attention once, it was always great to see him embarrassed. Ken only seemed to lose his cool whenever he was pestered by Serena or his mother.
A little while later they were all finally done packing and were loading things onto their cars. Ken was driving himself, and his mother had his siblings. Their dad had left the day before because he had business to handle and could not miss out on work.
"Bye Sere! I'll try my best to come visit soon. And not let two years go by.. Haha. I'm sure going to miss the moonlight around here"
He winked at her and she wished he was a little closer so she could have smacked him. They still were uncertain of what to do since his transformation, but since he had to go, it was being put on hold.
"Take care Kenny! Oh and let me know about you and Mina!"
She smirked. She had yelled the last part so her aunt could hear and now Ken had someone else who knew about Mina.
When the Williams had left, the Tsukino household was rather quiet. Serena decided she could at least start her homework, which surprised her. She had a rather dull evening and after watching some tv, fell asleep promptly.
The next few days went by like a blur. Between school, scout training and run-ins with Darien, Serena's free time was non-existent. However, today was now Friday, so she made her way towards the bookstore. She had manga to catch up on!
Serena walked into the bookstore, walking straight towards the manga aisle. She was excited because she had gotten a few extra yen to spend for her improving grades. As she turned the corner she bumped into someone.
"Ow! Oh I'm so sorry", two voices said at the same time. Serena looked up and was surprised to see Mina.
"Serena! Oh my gosh how have you been? I feel like we haven't really talked? Wasn't school such a bore today?"
"Yeah, it definitely was. I was so glad when the bell rang. I ran home and changed because I just had to come get my new manga. What about you? Are you doing anything today?"
"No, well I don't think I mentioned this before, but my father was the ambassador in London, so now both my parents have constantly been attending dinner parties, leaving me bored. I had planned to go to the mall, shopping helps me keep busy, and plus trying on new outfits is super fun". She had a genuine smile on her face, as if shopping solved the troubles of the world. Serena was glad Mina liked to shop, maybe they could be shopping buddies from now on?
"Why don't we go shopping?!"
"Are you busy today? I was just going to grab a book and head towards the mall."
Serena happily agreed and after both had purchased their books they headed to the bus stop where the would take the bus to the mall.
After a crowded bus ride, they were at their destination. They were both avid shoppers, and being both bubbly blondes, everyone seemed to love them. They were stopped a few times and asked if they were twins and after denying it, they eventually began to tell people they were twin sisters. They were truly bonding, and after a few hours of walking the mall and shopping to their hearts content, they decided they needed a food break.
They began telling stories of their childhood. Serena laughed when Mina said she used to bite her mother's lipsticks when she was younger, as payback for whatever nonsense she was upset about. Mina could not believe that Serena had gone through a tomboy phase when she was in elementary school. Serena affirmed this, saying she had befriended many of the boys and until recetnly, they had seen her as one of the guys. It hadn't bothered her though, because she had never liked any of them but many girls were always jealous of her for being able to talk to the guys while they were too shy to approach them. She didn't want to dwell on this though, she had gotten over her awkward phase and was steadily beginning to have more confidence in herself. Of course, being Sailor moon brought on new levels of confidence, but she was still a teenage girl at heart.
After the girls finished their meals they headed to a jewelry store and browsed through the bracelets. Serena was entranced by one that had a rose charm and was reminded of Darien. Whenever he crashed onto her, or whenever she was close enough, she could smell a strong musky rose scent. It threw her off because flowers were a girly aroma, but Darien's scent was intoxicating. She'd even considered asking him if he wore cologne but decided against it. That would be downright embarrassing.
Mina found one that had a white cat on it and bought it because it reminded her of Artemis. She told Serena she found him as a kitten and had been raising him since she was 10. They both left and decided it was time to go home so they headed back to the bus. They had been pleasantly sitting for a few minutes when Serena's communicator went off and she explained to Mina she had an alarm set to remind her that she needed to meet Rei at her temple. Luckily, she could get off at the next stop and transform. Running through the rooftops would be faster than the bus, and she still didn't know where the youma was attacking,
After leaving Mina on the bus and apologizing for leaving she called the girls. Mercury answered and told her to hurry towards the mall. Serena groaned and wished she had just stayed there longer and quickly got there just in time to see why Mercury didn't bother talking nor explaining the situation. Serena saw that there were three youma attacking, and although Mars, Jupiter and Mercury were trying their best, they couldn't defeat them. She quickly joined the fight and was faced with her own youma. Now there was one for Jupiter while Mercury and Mars were sharing one.
The scouts were quickly losing energy, and although the mall had been quickly evacuated, there were still a few people who had been drained and were now unconscious on the floor. Sailor Moon realized that they could not keep this up, three youma were just too much. They could probably defeat two if they all worked together, but three was too much, and she began to worry. Jupiter looked like she could hold on a little longer but Mars had a horrible cut on her right arm. Mercury was helping Mars, but her bubbles were not very effective against the youma. Their rival was a youma that looked like it had been created from metal and had two long blades for hands.
The one Moon was fighting seemed to have ground based attacks and looked like a rock ogre. Jupiter was fighting one that had water attacks, so her thunder was effective in theory, but the youma was too fast for her to charge her attack. Moon was growing agitated and missed the look the youma gave her. It charged towards, hurling a boulder that would be deadly. All she could do was stare and cover the attack, but it never came. Instead, the boulder had been smashed into pieces and there were about a dozen roses that had sliced it into pieces. She had never been so thankful for those flowers in her life. As she composed herself she gave a nod of thanks to Tuxedo Mask who was now fighting of the youma. She decided she'd help her scouts and joined Jupiter. They were doing okay now, with Tuxedo Mask's help but then she heard a cry that did not sound good. Mercury had a gash along her left leg, and was out, unconscious on the floor. She had intercepted an attack that would have sliced Mars stomach and now Mars felt horrible for letting Mercury take the damage. The youma knew it had them cornered, both were on the floor, Mars was cradling Mercruy, trying to stop the bleeding but failing. Moon called out to Jupiter and let her know she'd be going to stop the youma from getting to them. They were once again outnumbered and then if things couldn't get worse, both Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask were cornered together by the youma. They were assaulted by a combination attack and were knocked several feet away, leaving only Moon to fight.
"Sailor Moon! Look out!" Mars had seen the youma going to attack Moon and with her last energy knocked off course with her fire. She then collapsed on top of Mercury, but mouthed to words 'sorry' to Sailor Moon who now had to face the youma alone.
Moon was hysterical now. She was being quickly approached by all three youma and could do nothing but worry over her unconscious friends, she didn't even care that the youma were coming for her, she just needed to know that her friends would be safe.
The youma were advancing and were now only a few steps away. Sailor Moon braced herself, the tears were now flowing from her and she was still in shock.
"Venus Love chain encircle!"
Sailor Moon waited for the impact to come but instead she felt herself land next to someone. She looked up and was speechless. Sailor V was standing next to her, helping her back on her feet.
"Sailor V?"
"Venus. Are you ready to get back in there Sailor Moon?" She nodded and then Sailor Venus leaped into the air, landing behind one of the youma and kicking it to the ground. Moon didn't know how much help she could be, but joined her and the two were fighting all three together now. However one of them quickly maneuvered itself and separated Moon and Venus so now Venus was facing one and Moon had two.
Venus looked at Sailor Moon and began to worry. She knew they could each take out one, but would their efforts be enough to take down the third?
"Sailor Moon, I can take this one out and I know you can take one out. Once we get one each, let's get the third together."
Moon merely nodded and watched as Venus prepared her attack.
"Venus Crescent Beam Smash!"
The youma was hurled into the air, but Venus looked exhausted. It had been a more powerful youma than normal and Venus knew the Dark Kingdom was getting stronger if they could send out three powerful youma at once. She didn't realize just how much of her power she had exhausted and fell to the floor, her feet were too tired to keep her standing.
She saw Moon and noticed the panic written all over her face. However, the youma were also not as fast anymore, after having been fighting for so long but she still couldn't take out both of them with her tiara. Venus looked toward Moon apologetically and began to get back up on her feet.
Sailor Moon was indeed scared for herself, but she could not help worrying about the fallen scouts and Tuxedo Mask. She closed her eyed and wished she had the strength to defeat both youma, and in a blinding flash, she had summoned a scepter from out of no where.
She heard a whisper of a voice tell her the words that would activate it's power and she raised the scepter in her hands to the air, yelling "Moon Crescent Radiation!"
She could not keep herself steady and then Venus had joined her, keeping her hold on the wand firm, as the scepter released a silver swirl of glittering light that soon encompassed the youma and after a few more seconds they were dusted.
This of course was a drain on her power and she collapsed, falling onto Sailor Venus.
When Serena opened her eyes, she was surprised to find that she was on a comfy bed. She looked around and realized she was in Rei's room. She tried to get up but winced. She had a horrible headache and her body was in no condition for walking.
She was alone in the room and figured the Rei had slept somewhere else. She decided it would be best to call for her and let her know she was awake. She wanted to know how long she'd been out and what happened after she had dusted the youma.
"Rei!"
Her voice was weaker than usual, but Rei still heard her. She opened the door and Serena was surprised to see Lita and Amy behind her.
"What happened after I collapsed?" She went straight for the questions, she wanted to know what happened and if they had seen Venus.
Amy spoke up, " Well we were all unconscious, and thankfully Sailor Venus was able to get us up. Serena noticed Amy was wearing jeans, which was unusual for her but dismissed that thought.
Rei kept going. "She woke me up first. I helped her get Amy and Lita. Tuxedo Mask was gone though. Anyways, we were all too weak so we carried you into a closed store. The mall was closed off but the police got there eventually and we didn't want to be spotted. Thankfully Venus was not as weakened as us or we would have been found by the police and our identities could have been compromised. We ended up staying transformed, Venus was still with us and we all rested. Once we were all okay and we could carry you, we brought you here. And there's more."
Serena looked confused. "What did you tell my parents? Do they know where I am?"
Lita joined in, "yeah, I told them we were having a last minute sleepover at Rei's and your mom said that was okay."
Serena was still confused. "Well what else happened?"
Rei gave an awkward smile. "Well we were carrying you back here and Venus was telling us about how you saved us all, but then your transformation dropped and you were Serena. And Venus recognized you."
Serena fell back on the bed and stared at the ceiling before asking to explain further.
Amy decided to finish telling her the rest. "She knew you in your civilian form. We invited her to stay here and she agreed. When we got here we had a long discussion and she told us she was sorry for joining us so late. Sailor Venus is one of us."
At that moment, Mina walked in and Serena was still not fully recovered and now was overwhelmed with all the events that had occurred, so she passed out from the shock.
After sleeping for an hour Rei poked her cheeks. "Wake up meatball head. We'd appreciate it if our leader would grace us with her presence."
Serena snapped into attention and knew she had to power through this meeting before she could sleep the rest of the day. Luckily it was Saturday.
Mina approached her and gave her a heart warming smile. Serena knew if she had picked someone to be a scout she couldn't have picked anyone better than Mina. They were already becoming great friends, and now they were also bound by the ties that their princess shared with all of them.
The phone rang and Rei went to answer. The girls began talking about the fight and how last night they had all discovered their identities. Serena was slightly bummed out that she missed it, but was glad they were all together now, and most importantly, they were all safe. They realized this was why Rei had a vision that there were five scouts and Serena remembered her theory about Sailor V.
"Hey Venus, you wouldn't happen to know who the moon princess is?"
Venus looked at her and shook her head. She decided she'd tell them about how Artemis was her guardian and her experience with the Dark Kingdom in London.
Rei came back in and looked at Serena and handed her the phone.
"It's Ken. He sounds mad about something…"
Serena took the phone and answered. "Hello? Ken?"
"SERENA! ARE YOU OKAY? I KNEW I SHOULDN'T HAVE LEFT. I'M GONE FOR ONE WEEK AND YOU PASS OUT AFTER A BATTLE! THANK GOODNESS LUNA TOLD ME. I COME TO TOKYO FOR THE WEEKEND AND I'M GREETED WITH NEWS THAT YOU NEARLY DIED?!"
At this point Serena hung up the phone and hid under the covers. It was going to be a long day.
AN: Sorry for waiting almost a month to update. I was hoping someone would review and urge me to update but no one did (sads). I hope you take the time to review, because honestly that's the only way I know if you guys are liking the story and it makes my day when someone says they liked the chapter :) Thanks for reading! Oh yeah, thanks to all of you who have favorited/followed my story!