stumble-1
Ohayo! ^_^ Wai! You guys reviewed!! *hugs everybody who reviewed* Arigatou!! Because people reviewed, I think I'll answer some of the questions they asked! (But if you get a strange answer, it's because I don't want to reveal the plot ^_~)

Mako-chan: I want to know who the pair in Kyoto are too! *Polyhymnia, her muse, thwaps her* Itai! I mean...you'll find out. And I suppose it's not a TOTAL re-write, but these events were supposed to take place between R and Classic, but now that I think about it, it follows a re-write better. ^_^;; Next time, I have to plan that better... (Ah, and I'm really glad you like it! This was kind of written with you in mind...)
polgara: Eheheh....well, it's kinda funny really...^_^;;...Well, he's not evil if that helps. I can't answer this question without totally spoiling everything, so...next, please?
Siren: the green haired gal was Pluto and, busy senshi that she is, she only stuck around for the prologue. (Hence the ultra formal tone) Precious time reading reviews?! *sticks out her tounge* They motivate me! Don't you feel better writing something when you know people enjoy it?

All right, I think that's about it. Except, there's abuse of the Japanese language in this chapter. (That happens when I read manga, I abuse Japanese...) SO, here's a cute little chart to broaden you're vocabulary:
Taidama-I've returned/come home
Okaerinasai- Welcome home
Hidoi- Mean/cruel
sensee- teacher, or in this case, the title of 'doctor'. (My Japanese teacher taught me 'sensee', which is just a different romanization of 'sensei'. That's why I use this one.) Shiro-sensee means Dr. Shiro.
Chigau- you're wrong
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"no pain, no gain, there's a million voices in my brain,
it's like a game of hide and seek, and I play everyday.
I close my eyes and I count to ten, and
1,2,3, everybody runs away"
-Nina Gordon, Badway



Stumbling Towards Destiny
Chapter One

Night. Darkness blanketed the city. For one little blonde girl, it was the perfect time to break into a highly-secretive-but-has-bad-security corporation. She paused mid-way in her crawl through the ventilation system. Okay, maybe they were using that dust build up as security.

"Achoo!"

The girl's hand immediately flew to her mouth. She silently sent up a prayer that the building's one security guard hadn't passed by to hear her. The small cat on her shoulder glared in disapproval. She glared right back, offended that a cat would be disapproving her actions. Besides, she didn't see that cat trying to sneak into buildings unlawfully on a school night for the good of humanity. All it did was sit on her shoulders and boss her around. Freeloader.

She took a quick assessment of the vent, and decided that she wasn't where she was supposed to be. Which meant she'd have to keep going. She would've sighed, but that would probably cause more dust to make her sneeze again. Sometimes, she really hated her job.

"Which way now?" she whispered to the cat.

"To the left." it whispered back.

Some people would be suprized, and maybe a little worried, if their cats began to talk back to them. Not her, though. She would have been a little worried, and overjoyed, if her cat would just shut up. But he usually gave good advice. ('Take the pen', he said. 'It's your destiny', he said.) So, as she always did, the young lady followed the cat's lead and took the left air duct.

"If we run across some huge mutant spider, I'm using you as a decoy." she whispered.

"Hidoi, Mina-chan!" the cat whined, though still keeping careful to use a low whisper.

'Mina' smiled slightly, to show that she was only joking. Honestly, her little kitty could be way to serious sometimes. As if they would really run into a giant mutant spider. Those mutant rats had been much more common recently. And he hadn't really been complaining about those. But thankfully, the rest of her crawl through the vents was....well, uneventful...and she made it to the main office easily. But...that main office really had a high ceiling...

"The chain, Mina-chan."

Oh yeah. The chain. She carefully unfastened the special chain, which was proving to be quite versatile if she did say so herself, from around her waist and dangled it to the ground. It stuck nicely, magically, to the inside of the vent so she had no problem wit it falling off unexpectedly. As she shimmied down the chain though, she realized that she didn't have that luxury. With a little 'eep', the girls' hands slipped off the chain, and the ground made no-so-soft contact with her rear. Honestly, you'd think this office would have softer carpeting.

"Minako-chan...you really must work on your stealth skills. It's quite noticeable when a young girl falls from a vent into a heap." the cat, her wonderful, always present, always helpful cat leapt quietly to the ground next to her.

"Artemis, I love you, but would you stop using my real name?! It's a breach in a security." Minako giggled, and flashed Artemis the 'V for Victory' symbol. "Code name wa: SailorV."

"Hai, hai." Artemis rolled his eyes, and padded up to the desk in the center of the room. He perched himself in front of a computer. "Turn this thing on for me, will ya?"

Minako pulled the chain down from the vent, and walked up next to Artemis at the desk. After switching the computer on, Artemis began to type rapidly, skimming through the information the screen presented, and passing through security protection as if it were nothing. SailorV looked on, a bit lost, and very irritated that her cat was better with computers than she.

"What's it say?" she finally asked.

"It's as I feared. The Dark Kingdom has somehow infiltrated this company. And now they're using human test subjects. If we don't stop this 'Project Alice' then the entire rules will be changed. We'll no longer have to fight monsters, we'll be fighting real people!"

SailorV bit her lip. She'd become accustomed to fighting the youma the Dark Kingdom sent to gather energy. But how could she fight humans? She was supposed to protect people, wasn't she? It was a dirty trick, no matter how she looked at it.

"How can we stop them?"

"I'm going to install a virus into their main program. It's running 'Project Alice' right now. Hopefully, a setback so huge like this will stop their research in human development. And we should keep a close eye on this company too. The Dark Kingdom can reach a lot of people through Zodiac Designs Unlimited." with a final click of the keyboard, Artemis turned back to SailorV.

"It's time we left."

SailorV nodded, and picked Artemis up. She crept to the window, and left the office. The only trace of her entrance the computer, still running. And it would soon crash from the virus working within it.
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Elsewhere....

"Okaa-san! Taidama!" Usagi called as she dropped her purse on the small table in the entryway, and kicked her shoes into the little stand they were kept in while she was in the house.

"Okaerinasai, Usagi-chan! I'm in the kitchen!" her mother's voice called from down the hall.

Usagi picked up her slippers from the stand, and made her way to the kitchen, hopping and trying to get down the hall without slipping on the hard wood floor. Bracing herself against the wall, she managed to get both slippers on without falling down, or dropping her new pet. She smiled as she came up behind her mother, who was currently making dinner.

"Your father will be home late, and Shingo is staying over at a friend's tonight. So it's just us girls." Ikuko said, without turning around from the meal she was preparing.

"That sounds nice." Usagi smiled and closed her eyes.

She seated herself on the counter, legs dangling a bit, not touching the ground. The cat struggled in her arms, trying to be free to explore its new surroundings. Usagi glared down at the cat, but finally hopped back down off the counter to rummage about in the refrigerator for some type of fish.

"How was work today?" Ikuko asked.

"Pretty normal." Usagi answered, head halfway out of the refrigerator door. She went back to her task, picking up a half drunken glass of grape juice and polishing it off.

"Don't ruing your appetite. I'm almost done."

Usagi scowled, "I won't. I'm just looking." She dug deeper in, uncovering some food she really wished would have stayed hidden.

"Shiro-sensee just had me reading charts and labeling blood samples. I think right now he's just trying to teach me how to do all that classifying that's involved with being a nurse. I think it's boring." Usagi finally uncovered some fish paste that didn't look like it would be hazardous to eat, and tore off some chunks to give to her cat. Ikuko caught the gesture out of the corner of her eye, and turned on her daughter.

"Usagi! I told you not to eat...oh!" Her eyes fell to the little black cat munching away on the paste. "Where did you find that thing?"

Usagi blushed and grinned sheepishly, embarrassed at being caught so soon. She'd wanted to bring up her new pet a little later.

"Eheheh....well, she kinda followed me home." Usagi looked hopefully up at her mother. She wasn't buying it. "Okay, I tripped over her and thought maybe she could use a meal."

"Usagi!" her mother glared at her fiercely. "You know that if you feed an animal, it will never leave you alone! You need to take it out now!"

"No way!" Usagi protested, scooping the cat up into her arms. "I wanna keep her!"

"But Shingo hates cats! He won't live in the same house as one!"

"He won't have to!"

For a moment, there was only silence. Usagi cursed herself for the big mouth she had and realized that there wasn't going to be an easy way to get around this. She sighed and wondered how one little cat could cause so much trouble. Ikuko looked questioningly at her daughter, and there was a hidden fury in her eyes. At nineteen, she couldn't have imagined her daughter would still be giving her the trouble that she did. Nevertheless, she was sure her daughter would explain her rash outburst as soon as she was ready.

"I've been thinking...that lately...you know, because I have a job and all...and..." Usagi looked back down at the ground. It should have been easier, since it was just her and her mother, but still... she wanted to do this. Why was it so hard?

"You see, I'm almost twenty now...in a few months, that is...and..."

"For heaven's sake, spit it out, Usagi-chan!"

"I want to move out."

That silence hung in the air again. Ikuko just stood there for a few moments, simply looking at her daughter, eyes unreadable. Finally, she turned back to the food she had been preparing and continued as if the whole argument hadn't even happened. Usagi just stared at her mother's back, one hand reaching out, with eyes wide and pleading.

"Kaa-san? Onegai-"

"If that's what you want Usagi, you might as well do it. Far be it for your family to get in the way of your life. If we're not good enough for you-"

"Iie! Iie, okaa-san! Chigau!! It's not that! It was never that!! I just...I just feel like I've been such a burden for all of you, and now that Shingo is getting into high school, it's going to be more to raise him too. I just don't want to be such a burden for you all." Usagi's eyes began to well up with tears. 'It's all turning out so wrong!'

Ikuko turned back to her daughter, her eyes softening. Is that what she though?

"Usagi."

The younger woman looked up at her mother, carefully wiping away the tears that were threatening to spill over in her eyes.

"Usagi, we love you. You're my daughter. How could we ever consider you a burden? Sure, you've given us a lot of trouble as you've grown up, but you're always smiling and always happy. You've turned out to be such a kind person, and now you've devoted you're life to helping other people. How could we not love you, and who you've become. Usagi-chan, you're always welcome with you're family."

Listening to her mother's words, Usagi couldn't keep her tears from falling. With a strangled cry, she launched herself into Ikuko's arms, crying into the collar of her shirt. She hadn't realized at all...she knew her family loved her, but it always felt as if they were disappointed with her. It felt like something heavy had lifted off her...

"Okaa-chan...I don't know what to do. I feel I have to leave and move on, but I love you all so much! I want to stay here! But, I know I also want to find my own place in live. It's...it's so confusing." she cried, and buried her face deeper in her mother's shirt.

"Ssshh..." Ikuko soothed her daughter, rubbing her back softly. "It's all right. I understand. If you need to leave, Usagi, then you need to leave. Your father and I will always be willing to help you, and support you if you ever need it. You won't be alone. Musume-chan...my little bunny's all grown up.." Ikuko smiled sadly, feeling tears trickle down her face as well. Her daughter really was growing up, no matter how hard they'd tried to deny it. She wouldn't be their little bunny any more. But....

"I'll always be you're little girl." Usagi smiled up at her mother. "Arigatoo. I understand now. As long as I have you, and Tou-san, and eve Shingo-kun I'll never be alone. I do want to find my own place in life. Kaa-san...I'm glad."

The two smiled at each other, and Usagi immediately hopped up, stretching from side to side.

"But not tonight! Dinner's almost done, right? Please hurry up, kaa-san! I'm starved!" with that, Usagi went off in search for her new little kitty, whom had run off to explore the house during the touching mother daughter moment.

Ikuko watched her daughter leave the kitchen, and smiled. Usagi would always be Usagi, no matter what happened to her. She just hoped that Usagi would be okay out on her own. She was so...innocent, and there was so much out there that could hurt her.

"Kami-sama...please...take care of my little girl."

Up in the night sky, the stars twinkled and sparkled prettily, and if you looked closely, the full moon almost seemed to smile.
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*sighs* These still feel too darned short. Blegh. Anyway, please remember to review. It makes me get chapters out faster. ^_~

Anyway. Disclaimer: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Nakayoshi, Kodansha, and Toei and all its holdings. Gundam Wing belongs to Sohei Entertainment (I think…) and Sunrise. 'Badway' is property of Nina Gordon.This story is written without intent of copyright infringement. If one of the aforementioned companies/individuals finds this, please don't sue. I will happily direct you to people who abuse you're materials much worse than me. Thank you.