Chapter One: A New Scout
Two figures perched on a nearby rooftop watching the fight below. It was a typical fight: monster sucks energy from humans, Sailor Scouts appear, Sailor Moon makes silly speech, Scouts and monster attack each other, and eventually the monster is worn down enough for Sailor Moon to finish it off with a Moon Spiral Heart Attack.
The pair waited until the Scouts had finished congratulating each other and left before coming down from the roof.
"We have definitely got a problem Perseus," said the girl as she examined the pile of dust that was all that was left of the monster.
"What do you mean?" asked Perseus. The question was innocent enough but the fact that it was coming from a large dark gray tomcat gave the query more weight.
"I think this was a Dark Kingdom youma," the girl replied as she stood up and wiped her gloved hands on the pale gray skirt of her Scout uniform and absentmindedly adjusted her burgundy bows. As she stared thoughtfully out into the distance the sun sparkled off of the burgundy stone in her tiara. An answering spark reflected off of the yellow crescent moon on the cat's forehead.
"I hope you're wrong Athena," the cat said, but he didn't sound too hopeful.
"This bears looking into," said Sailor Athena. She stooped and picked up Perseus. She settled the cat in her arms and leapt back up to the rooftop. The two were unaware of the tuxedo-clad man who watched them from yet another rooftop vantagepoint.
"Another Scout?" thought Tuxedo Mask. "How can there be anymore? We've run out of planets!" He hadn't been close enough to hear what the unknown Scout and Guardian Cat had been discussing, so he decided not to tell the others until he found out more. There was no need to excite Sailor Moon and the other Scouts until he had at least had a chance to talk to Pluto. "She might be hard to get in touch with. I'll call Alex and Michelle tonight. Maybe they know how to reach her." With that thought in mind, the tuxedo clad superhero leapt away over the rooftops toward his apartment.
The Next Day
"Coffee for your thoughts?" quipped Andrew as he placed a cup down in front of his friend as he sat staring off into space at the counter in the Crown Arcade.
"Huh?"
"Man, Dare! You sure are out of it today! Having trouble with Serena again?" The blonde arcade guy leaned over the counter to give Darien a closer look.
"Oh, no Andrew. Serena and I are just fine. I'm just thinking about school. You know classes start Monday." Darien didn't like lying to his best friend, but it would be asking a bit much to explain what was really on his mind. He had finally managed to get in touch with Susan, better known as Sailor Pluto. She hadn't been much help. In fact all she would say was: "All shall be revealed in the fullness of time. Do not mention what you have seen to the others." 'She must get some kind of kick out of being so, so blasted mysterious!' Darien fumed to himself.
"Yeah," Andrew replied, "It's strange to think that we're in our second year of college, huh?"
Darien focused back on Andrew. "Yeah, strange. Talking of strange, it'll be strange having you being single while I've got a girlfriend. That is a big role reversal."
"Yeah, I know. But Rita and I just grew apart. I guess what they say about maintaining a long distance relationship is true. At least we're still friends, even if we did break up. You haven't told the girls have you?!" Andrew looked frantically around the arcade as if expecting an ambush to jump out at him.
Darien laughed. "Your secret's safe with me! At least until I need to pull out the heavy ammunition!"
Andrew gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. "The girls are sweet and all, but when Lita and Mina get an idea, especially one involving guys in their heads…"
"I know, believe me, I know!" the two college boys exchanged a long-suffering look.
"I've got it!" Darien exclaimed.
"You've got what?" Andrew asked warily.
"We need to get you a new girlfriend before the girls find out and then you'll be safe!"
"Right, Dare." You could have cut the sarcasm with a knife. "The girl of my dreams is just going to walk through that door." The blonde boy waved his hand theatrically toward the door of the arcade and right on cue it opened.
A silhouette appeared in the door, back lit by the blazing August sun, a slender, nicely curved silhouette.
"You were saying Andy?" Darien smirked. Andrew just stared at the girl in the doorway. Somewhere Lenny Cravitz' version of American Woman began to play. After a momentary pause, she moved on into the arcade, allowing the automatic doors to close behind her. The boys watched as the girl walked slowly toward the counter. Even though Darien had a steady girlfriend, that didn't keep him from appreciating a set of gorgeous legs, especially when Serena wasn't around. Said set of legs led up to a softly curving body clad in a crop top and shorts and from there up to a classically beautiful face. Her eyes were hidden behind John Lenin sunglasses, but the slight curve to her full lips radiated cool amusement. She sat down at the counter and flipped a lock of dark brown hair over her shoulder.
When neither of the boys said anything, she took off her sunglasses, revealing laughing gray eyes. "What's wrong? Am I intruding?" Her soft voice broke the spell.
"Uh, yeah! I mean no!, I mean, can I get you something?" Andrew stuttered.
The girl just smiled. "I'd like a Dr. Pepper please, as cold as you can make it." Andrew hurried off to get her drink, glad to do something to hide his blazing cheeks. "Is he always like this?" the girl turned to face Darien for the first time. Gray eyes met blue and a shock of recognition ran through the girl's veins.
"Darien? Darien Chiba?" she paused seeing the confusion in Darien's eyes. "My, how you've grown! Mama was right, you did grow up to be a cutie."
"Do I know you?" Darien thought that he should recognize the girl, but with his none too reliable memory he wasn't sure.
The girl grinned with a spark of pure devilment in her eyes. "I don't know whether to be insulted or flattered." Darien still looked confused. "Maybe you'll remember if you imagine me with pigtails and a baseball cap"
An image of a little girl in pigtails, a baseball cap and those same laughing gray eyes flashed across Darien's mind. "Cassie?"
"The one and only!"
Darien surged to his feet and picked Cassie up in a hug and swung her around. He put her down and held her at arm's length. "I've changed?! Look at you! You're all grown up!"
"Well, it has been 5 years." Darien and Cassie stood grinning at one another like fools.
"I take it you know each other," Andrew said dryly, his composure regained. "Old girlfriend, Darien?" It wasn't often that 'cool as ice' Chiba got this excited.
"No!!!" Darien blushed slightly and sat back down. Cassie followed suit. "Cassie, this is Andrew Furuhata. Andrew meet Cassandra Whitmore. She is an old friend."
"I can tell," Andrew grinned wickedly. "How good a friend?" he asked as he sat a drink down in front of Cassie.
"Oh, we're real good friends," Cassie answered with an equally wicked grin. Darien leaned back a look of painful resignation on his face. "He's the first boy that I ever kissed." Darien groaned and hid his head in his hands.
"Oh really?" Andrew was thoroughly enjoying the prospect of needling Darien even as he hid a spurt of unreasoning jealousy at the thought of Darien and this mischievous imp of a girl kissing.
"It was all very romantic," Cassie said in confidential tone as she leaned forward on the countertop. "He fought off a bully who was trying to impart 'worse than death' upon me."
"Worse than death?" Andrew blinked in confusion.
"Yes. The bully was trying to steal my brand new baseball glove." Cassie smiled, somehow managing to look much younger as she turned with mock innocent eyes on Darien. "You got trashed didn't you Dare? And all to save little ol' me." She batted her eyelashes at her friend. "I don't know what embarrassed you more, the bruises or the peck on the cheek that I gave you afterwards."
"I was only ten at the time, Cass, and you were what? Eight? You may look different, but you still act the same. What did I do to deserve having to deal with you again?" The look on Darien's face didn't match the acerbity of his words. In fact he looked absolutely tickled.
"You'll just have to get used to having me around again. We moved back to town."
"That's great!" Darien grinned. "It'll be nice to my 'little sister' around to torture again."
"And to be tortured by!" Cassie winked at the arcade guy.
"Little sister?" Andrew looked even more confused. "Since when do you have a sister?"
Darien looked at his dumfounded friend. "She's not my real sister. We grew up together, so we just act like brother and sister. We've known each other since we were little kids."
"Yep," Cassie nodded emphatically. "Dare practically lived at my house until Daddy got transferred and we moved away. That was five years ago." Inspiration struck. "How long have you known Darien, Andrew?" asked Cassie with a gleam in her eyes.
"About five years now Cassandra." Andrew began to get a sneaky glint in his brown eyes.
"Just call me Cassie. Why don't I tell you all about young Darien and you tell me all about slightly older Darien? That way between the two of us, we can keep him in line," That sneaky glint in both sets of eyes turned into full-fledged devilment.
"You can't do that!" Darien was horrified.
"And how are you going stop us Mr. Chiba?" Cassie cocked one eyebrow at the dark haired boy.
"Like this!" Darien reached out and began to tickle her. She shrieked and tried to get away, but the much taller boy was able to keep hold of her as she writhed with laughter. Andrew stood astonished for a second and then began to laugh.
It was at that fateful moment that five teenage girls walked into the Crown Arcade.
"Darien!!!" screamed the blonde with two long pigtails and meatball-like buns.
Andrew, Darien, and Cassie froze. The dark haired boy looked at his girlfriend, then down at the girl in his arms, then back to his girlfriend. Then he did the only thing he could think of to do: he dropped the girl in his arms like a she was a snake. Cassie landed with a thud on the ground still giggling slightly from the tickle attack.
"Hi Serena! I can explain…" Darien had the guiltiest look on his face. That caused Andrew to begin laughing again. He laughed so hard that tears were streaming down his face and he had to hold onto the countertop to stay on his feet.
Serena and her four friends stalked up to Darien. Serena looked more hurt than anything, but the other four were exuding enough anger to fry birds in mid-flight. Darien swallowed and tried to speak again, but nothing came out.
"We're waiting Darien," said the girl with the long, dark hair as she stood tapping her foot in a rapid tattoo. She shot Andrew an annoyed look that only made him laugh harder.
"Maybe I can help." The girls looked down at the stranger on the floor. Cassie smiled at them as she climbed to her feet, brushing tears of laughter out of her eyes. "I'm Cassandra Whitmore, Darien's unofficial little sister." She held out her hand.
"Little sister?" Serena looked confused as she took Cassie's hand.
"Darien and I grew up together. I just got back in town. Who might you all be?"
"Oh, where are our manners?" asked the blue haired girl. "My name is Amy Mizuno. This is Serena Tsukino, Mina Aino, Raye Hino, and Lita Kino." She pointed to each of the girls in turn. Cassie nodded to each.
"Let's sit down and talk. I take it Serena is Darien's girlfriend?" Cassie asked as she led the group of girls toward a table. Although Raye and Lita still looked suspiciously at the new girl, they were all soon sitting and gossiping like old friends.
After several minutes, Andrew got his laughter under control and turned to his best friend. "How did she do that?"
Darien had sat back down at the counter, sagging with relief. "Do what?"
"Keep those girls from ripping your head off."
"I don't know. Cassie is just a born diplomat."
Andrew picked up Cassie's abandoned drink. "Come on. Let's go see what they are discussing." The two boys headed over to the table full of girls.
"So you're the little girl with the rose. Darien has been looking for you for most of his life." Cassie was saying. "You're a very lucky girl."
Serena blushed and nodded. "I know."
"Saying something nice about me Cass?" Darien asked as he pulled up a chair by Serena.
"Only by accident, Dare." She smiled up at Andrew as he put her drink down on the table and pulled up a chair by her.
"So Cassandra…" "Cassie." "All right, Cassie. How old are you?" asked Mina.
"I'm eighteen."
"Cool! We're all sixteen. We all go to Crossroads High, except for Raye. She goes to T*A High," Mina laughed. "We're sophomores."
Cassie smiled at the exuberant blonde. "Well, that's good. I'm going to go to Crossroads, too. I'll be a senior this year."
"That must be hard. Moving in your senior year," Serena said sympathetically.
"I'm used to it. My family has moved a lot in the last five years. We even spent a while in London, England a few years ago."
"Really! Me too!" squealed Mina. She and Cassie proceeded to have an involved conversation about England. Amy, Serena, and the two boys listened avidly. While they were involved, Lita leaned over and whispered in Raye's ear.
"What do you think Raye?"
"She's telling the truth about Darien. The link between them is like that of a brother and sister. It's just…" the dark haired priestess whispered back.
"What?" Lita demanded.
"Underneath it all, she seems very lonely. And there is something else. I just don't know what it is." The two girls drew away from each other as they noticed Cassie watching them. She gave them a sweet smile, but the loneliness Raye had sensed was evident in her eyes even in the midst of an attentive crowd.
Next time on Sailor Moon: Serenity's Court:
The day that parents long for and students dread is here: the first day of school! Don't miss School Begins.
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