I do not own Sailor Moon. Enjoy!


Falling Stars


Chapter 18

As if for the first time in her entire life, Usagi woke up and truly felt alive. With her toes dug into the warm sand, her hair dancing on the salty breeze, and her eyes lit beneath the blazing sunset, her soul felt as if it was set aflame with passion. Not a loving passion, nor one of bliss...but one of determination and of strength. It had been so long since she felt this way...

Kasumi cast her several sideways glances as they paced along the shore, their gazes often traveling to the vast, sparkling ocean beside them. Her auburn hair seemed to glow beneath the intense sunshine, and the once brilliant allure of her peachy tunic dulled as the light began to fade. Sunset loomed before them--taunting.

"Where did it come from, Kasumi-san? Where do the Dark Ones originate?" Usagi inquired softly, stopping abruptly. Usagi curled her toes in the white sand beneath her, and she suddenly felt less-than-grounded. The dream-like apparition of the sunlit senshi seemed more real than even Usagi herself. "I have to know what I'm up against." When Kasumi hesitated to reply, Usagi waved her off. Perhaps she would have to find her own way...

"Usagi-san, may I ask you a question?" the woman asked suddenly, contrary to the blonde's expectation.

The Odango Atama blinked her light eyes and nodded reluctantly, her streams swinging behind her. "Hai."

"Do you wonder if you made the wrong decision--many years ago when your journey as the senshi of the Moon began?" Kasumi spoke in a polite tone, now facing the ocean full-on. She closed her eyes and tilted back her head, breathing in deeply the fresh air. Elated at the sensation, her strange eyes twinkled as she glanced back at Usagi.

The question, however, seemed to strike deeper within Usagi than Kasumi had intended. For she stifled a gasp, folded her arms, and looked away quickly. Her body language, on the other hand, spoke of insecurity rather than of offense. "At times I regretted ever accepting my destiny. But if that was the intended path for me...I would never truly stray from it. Somehow I'd always end up where I belonged. Don't you agree?"

"I can, and do. I saw it in Hinotama once or twice, the regret...but as soon as this happened," she replied as the brilliant, beach-front property blackened to nothing more than a dark space, the two of them standing content within it, "That attitude never returned. She was set on reviving our last Utopia, though in many senses such an ideal was impossible to attain."

Usagi's heart stopped as the beautiful scene disappeared and left a dark hole in its wake. "You mean, Hinotama was--

"Yeah. A lot like you," Kasumi finished with a giggle. "Far more stubborn and feisty, but nonetheless a lot like you."

"Rei-chan is like her--stubborn and fiery."

"Ah, your senshi?"

Usagi nodded with a tiny smile. "And a dear friend."

"Do you wish to return to them?" Kasumi continued, her tone even and probing. Usagi replied with another nod. Suddenly Kasumi's brilliant gaze darkened and narrowed to one of disdain and skepticism.

"More than anything...wait. What is happening? Something isn't right," she answered, as if realizing the darkness for the first time. "Kasumi-san..."

"Did you really think that such a wonderous place could exist--even now?" Kasumi spat, eyes burning into Usagi with anger. Her tresses were gorgeous even in the seeming lack of light. And her eyes...they were so furious. "You left them behind to escape to a world of make-believe! They need you, Usagi-san!" Her arm shot out past Usagi, directing the blonde back to a location beyond them. "Leave this place and return to them!"

Usagi stood stiff now, her arms tensed. "You're one of them aren't you?" she accused venomously.

"Wouldn't that be appropriate...a demonic utopia," Kasumi replied with a smirk. "No, Selenity-hime. I am no such beastly thing...I loyally serve Hino-chan...even in death. We all do," she continued, casting a rueful glance upwards to what might have been the sky of the black nothingness. Usagi stepped back in realization, eyeing Kasumi carefully. If not a demon, but yet not exactly friendly--Usagi at least knew that Kasumi loyally served her sister. Which in the meantime was God know's where...

Usagi balled her hands into fists and her eyes shot to the ground as rage began to flicker within her. It was the same lively passion she had felt mounting inside of her just moments before. Perhaps now she would truly understand. The rage was flickering again. "She told me that I bear a gift...one that will aid us in our quest. I wonder, Kasumi...do you ask if this will be your last breath?"

"I'm already dead," Kasumi answered softly, as if enraged at the thought. Just knowing that she could not aid Hinotama as she once had was bad enough. "You realize that this is no longer a dream, Usagi-san. It is the embodiment of your insecurities, your fears, and your masked hates. We reside within the depths of your mind, within your soul. Which is perhaps why nothing we say seems to make any sense. This...place is in your mind."

Usagi looked away for a moment and sighed, pretty eyes sad. "Am I that twisted and selfish? I devulge to myself the very secrets I wished to lay away in the dark? The life I didn't want and yet accepted without fail? Kasumi-san, I did leave them behind. I'm reverting back to the attitude I bore in my own world...back home. Is this darkness...the darkness of my mind what's poisoning this world and hindering its ability to revive itself?" She spun around to face the young woman, her expression pained and fearful. Usagi's eyes flew wide open and she threw herself at Kasumi, hysterical and nearly brought to tears. As she cried out, clinging to the deceased-senshi by the shoulders, her voice was desperate and wrought with pain. "Is she dead?"

"Odango Atama...so silly," Kasumi laughed suddenly, but her voice no longer that of a woman. Usagi's eyes shot open and she leapt backwards, too frightened to cry any longer.

"Mamoru..." she whispered breathlessly, eyes oscilating rapidly.

"I see you haven't forgotten us...yet."

"Forget you? Mamo-chan!" Usagi screamed, watching Kasumi's body change to that of her beloved's. Immediately, her eyes welled over with tears and Usagi fought to hold them back. She couldn't be sure as to whether or not she was experiencing a dream. "Stop this, onegai, Kasumi-san! Your tricks won't work on me...you're trying to protect Hinotama, I understand that! But you can't condemn me...I'm afraid. I admit it...I'm terrified. But I can't save her unless I know where it is I'm headed!"

"You dreamed up this whole mess, Usako. Now fix it!" Mamoru chided, his masculine form looming before her. Usagi stared back at him wordlessly, mouth gaping. All the while, the young woman could not help but wonder if she had lost her mind...

The man suddenly nodded, slowly bowing before her. "Save her, Usako...onegai," he--or was it she?--murmured sorrowfully. Their eyes locked and Usagi could no longer hold out against the stare. She dropped to her knees, level with the person in front of her.

"I will save her. I swear to you, in the name of the White Moon. I know you're not Mamoru...and I know that you love Hinotama, my sister, as if she were your own," Usagi proclaimed, taking 'Mamoru's' hands. Immediately, the masculine visage faded, and a pleased Kasumi remained. "It seems I've been sitting around forever now, saying that I'll do this and save that. But now it's time for me to actually do it."

Kasumi nodded, her auburn hair swishing over her shoulders and settling around her gently. Blinking her odd eyes, she regarded Usagi with a slight smile. "Do you understand now, Usagi? Do you now see what you must do to save her? And to help her save us all?"

The blonde tilted her head and offered the senshi a lopsided smile, her golden tresses swaying gently in the midst of the black nothingness in which they stood. "I've always been Fate's puppet...but I trust that my heart will guide me."