I really hate Microsoft at the moment!  It keeps screwing up this text font thingy, and it's really pissing me off.  Anyways, I know it's not complete, but the second part should be out tomorrow.  Congrats to the following peoples: Little Dragon5, Wreath of Roses, Marni and SlvrDragon.  I liked Ami's remark too!  She stands firmly by her queen, even though she's not really queen at the moment. Anyways, I also send out my thanks to all the wonderful people who reviewed!  Eleven reviews!  That's a record for any one chapter!  I love you guys!


Chapter Eight Part One of Two:

Usagi couldn't shake the feeling that something important was about to happen.  It followed her everywhere, even in her dreams.  She had never had any sort of foreknowledge before, but the feeling was inescapable.  She couldn't imagine what it could possibly be, and she finally went to Nephrite with it.

She knocked lightly on his bed room door, hoping she wasn't disturbing anything.  When she received his assent, and entered to see him sitting at a large desk with astrological charts spewed across it.  He looked up briefly and motioned her to the other chair.

Usagi sank into a comfy chair with a sigh.  Due to this feeling she had not been having very restful sleeps, and any rest helped. She fiddled with the braid she had adopted, keeping her annoyingly silky hair out of her face.  Finally, she sighed, and spoke.  "I'm going to be blunt, because I have no other way of phrasing this.  Is it possible for one of the Moon queens to have visions of the future?  I need to know."

He looked startled.  "I believe so.  Queen Serenity always denied it, but she had been preparing for Beryl's assault long before there were any real signs of opposition.  And, from what I've been told, she also predicted the births of all you senshis, even you."  He turned quizzical eyes to the small silver woman.  "Why?  Have you seen anything?"

She raised frustrated eyes to him.  "I don't know!  All I know is that I keep seeing the senshis here, of all places! And they are fighting the Dark sisters!  Only, instead of winning the fight, like the senshis have always done, A- Mercury is captured, and sent into a coma."  She stopped, and Nephrite opened his mouth to say something, but she kept going.  "And there's a sense of foreboding, like something even worse is going to happen.  Then it cuts off, and all I hear is crazed laughter that echoes, as if from far away."  She stopped again, and ran frustrated fingers through her hair, wrecking the braid so that silver strands of hair fell into her eyes.

Nephrite leaned his hands on the back of his chair, framing his face as he thought.  His mind was racing, as he went over everything he had last seen in the stars, ever since Usagi had arrived, four days past.  There had been very little of importance, but as he thought about it, there had been a few cryptic messages that had not made any sense.  "The stars said that the moon would attack the moon, only with dark connotations on the first 'moon', and powerful connotations on the second.  Then they went on to say that the planets would avenge the moon.  Which made even less sense.  If you are the moon, then why would your friends want to avenge you?"  He watched her, wanting to know the answer, even though he knew(thought) that it had nothing really to do with him.

Usagi blinked, and shuddered.  "Damn," she swore.  "That means that the Dark Moon is coming here.  I thought that maybe I was just imagining things, worrying.  And avenging senshis," she shuddered again, "are not something I would wish on even the Dark Moon.  Hm, it doesn't really help, not yet, but it may later on."  She turned her face to watch him again.  "That brings up something else.  If that's all you've seen, then you have definitely lost some of your touch.  In the Silver Millennium, you would have been able to pinpoint the exact date and time, along with any pertaining names, along with witnesses and all!"  She paused, and he got the feeling that he wasn't going to like what she said next.  "I know!  You need training!"

Nephrite groaned, and he thought of the last time someone had said that.  One thousand years in the past, and he still remembered the stern taskmaster that had taught him before he had become one of Endymion's guards.  "Please, Gods, noooo."

Usagi smirked, and jumped to her feet, all previous tiredness gone.  "We will start today!"

"Usa-chan, this is cruel and inhumane.  We are grown men, and you still treat us like children!" Jedite exclaimed rubbing his sore head.  Usagi had been instructing them on controlling their power for the past two hours, not stopping at all.  He swore he would be able to recite her instructions in her sleep.  "Banish stray thoughts, find your centre, find your power, and draw."  Over and over and over...

"Because you are children, at least when it comes to this.  Never forget that, and perhaps you live against your first youma!"  Usagi was sitting calmly before them.  She had insisted on pulling all of them together, and had begun their first lesson immediately.  "And no, Zoicite, I will not pull forward your memories from the Silver Millennium.  They are not useful anymore, because the power of the Earth has changed!"  At seeing their mutinous faces, she sighed.  "Fine.  Enough for right now.  But tonight, we will do it again."

"Why?" Jedite asked.  His head hurt abominably, and he saw no real reason to use this power in him.  He had no need to.

Usagi was tempted to say 'Because I said so!' but she realized that these men deserved better then that.  She was saved from having to answer by Nephrite.

"Because," he said patiently, "Usagi wasn't kidding when she said that the Earth was under attack once more.  The Dark Moon is after the Earth, and any help may turn the tide of the battle."

Usagi mentally thanked the brown-haired man, and he winked at her as if he had heard.  "So, that said, keep practicing whenever you have a few minutes to spare.  Explore on you own, but please, keep it under control."  She smiled, and got up, brushing herself off.  "I have had to do that myself for about nine years, so you are not the only ones.  If you keep your eyes open, you will find plenty of others who magical gifts, and who use them for good.  Magic is not limited to senshis, or legendary Generals, you know."  She smiled brightly, and went into the kitchen.

She stared at the image before her.  A stunning woman stood staring forlornly out at the distance, with a backdrop of swirling darkness all around her.  The woman's face was obscured by the darkness, but Usagi knew who the woman had been modeled after.  After all, she had painted it herself.

If only it had lasted, Mamo-chan.  Then I would not feel so empty as I do now.  but perhaps, perhaps, this loneliness is not from missing you, but from missing love...  those thoughts had repeated over and over as she had planned the picture, and later on as she had drawn it.  She had titled it "Shattered Dreams," and she was fairly certain very few would catch the meaning to it.  "But isn't that the reason to art?  So that the viewers make their own judgments?" she asked noone softly.

"I don't believe that," someone whispered from behind her.  She spun around to see Zoicite watching her from the doorway into her study. 

"Oh really?" Usagi asked.

"I think that art is made with an idea in mind, and that the artist paints it so that others see it too," the beautiful man said.  He had always said he loved her paintings, but she didn't truly know his stance on it before.

Usagi laughed, and moved back to stand with him, to admire her painting from afar.  "Maybe that is why you are so picky about what art you like.  Whether or not you feel the true image behind it, eh?"

He only smiled.  "But your intent comes across easily, Buns.  I love that about you.  You do not hide so much as the other senshis.  Or at least, you didn't before.  You have changed, Usa-chan."  He turned his head so he was now looking at her, not the painting.

"I'm sorry, Zoi-chan.  I cannot help it.  And there is no blame, on anyone, so please do not be guilty, or angry."  She spoke as she knew that was exactly what he had been thinking.

I do prefer the manga, yes, that is why my charas are normally based off it, but the anime is so much easier to manipulate in an A/U.  It is probably glaringly obvious that I adore the manga (Buns! Ugh, english translation is really bad, but it's cute), but have a very low opinion of the anime.  Heh heh...