Disclaimer: Yeah, I really don't own this. Okay, I'm writing this fast because I want to get it done before the evil summer camp comes to take me away. I posted the beginning chapters so quickly because I had some of it pre-written, but with this fourth chapter I am vanishing into the realm of the unforeseen…crap.

"It's OZ! They're attacking the mall!" cried Duo, frantically searching for weapons. He hadn't suspected OZ to attack anywhere on the Earth…wasn't OZ's goal to destroy the colonies and establish supremacy for Earth? Ah, well, plenty of time to think later, he mused as he pulled out a pistol—the only gun he had on him. Beside him, he saw a burst of flame as Rei transformed into Sailor…what was it again? Pluto?

"Mars, you baka," she growled. Duo turned white.

"How did you-" he was abruptly cut off by an explosion.

"Come on, no time for that," Rei snapped. "There are people here! This could turn into a massacre!"

"Rei, I only have a pistol and last time you tried to fight you nearly passed out."

"Well, I'm a lot better now. Senshi healing power. If you have small wounds, they'll heal within hours."

"I-" Duo fell silent.

"Come on!" Rei urged, running towards the source of the explosions. Duo quickly caught up with her, crouching behind the wreckage in order to shoot from a safe location. He began aiming shots at the source of the explosions: two people who looked completely normal-that is, if you ignored the flames burning around their entire bodies. One looked like a young girl, about thirteen, with brown hair and embers creating an aura of fire surrounding her. The other was an older man who was extending some sort of shield around himself. The fire was burning on this energy shield and not on the man himself.

"Mars Snake Fire," Rei shouted, sending a blast of flame from her Sailor Crystal that engulfed the two figures. It had no effect on the girl, although the man had to strain to keep up the shield. Rei pulled out her bow and did a Flame Sniper, this time aiming solely at the man with the shield. The man fell to his knees with the effort of maintaining the shield, and the girl looked shaken as a bullet from Duo clipped her skull. Duo aimed once more from behind and this time got the girl in the calf, causing her to sink to her knees alongside the man. She still managed to send a blast of fire at Rei, who blocked it with a Burning Mandala, although the fire senshi could feel the burning heat singeing her face and hair.

The man created some sort of energy beam out of the same substance the shield was made from and hurled it at Rei, who was caught off guard and hurled through a store window in a burst of glass and blood. Without thinking, Duo got to his feet and aimed his gun at the man, but his bullets hit the shield and bounced off, catching the braided pilot in the thigh. Blood spurted from the wound, and Duo realized he could no longer stand. He toppled over, hoping to Kami that Rei was okay. His vision was dimming, and he knew from basic anatomy that his bullet must have hit an artery. Duo would die of blood loss within minutes.
Bleeding from dozens of gashes, Rei jumped out from the store window, swaying slightly. She shot another Flame Sniper at the man's shield, and this time it broke through. The man lay on the ground, unmoving, skin blackened and smouldering, as the girl knelt, weeping with pain. Rei ran up to Duo, who was lying in a pool of blood, grinning half-heartedly at what he knew was about to be a fatal wound. Rei ripped off a strip of her skirt and quickly tied it around Duo's upper thigh, creating a hastily made tourniquet. She told the barely conscious Duo to lift his leg and lean on her. Half walking, half carrying Duo out to the parking lot sapped what little strength remained in Rei's body. She collapsed on the manicured grass outside the mall, breathing heavily and despairing about what to do next.
"1-814-325-6720," gasped Duo, holding out his cell phone.
"What?" asked Rei frantically, grabbing the phone to dial in the numbers.
"18.143.25.672.0." his voice died away as the phone began to ring. Rei heard the now-familiar voice of Quatre answer the phone.
"Moshi-moshi."
"Quatre-san! There's been an attack at the shopping mall and Duo's injured," she cried. "Quatre, I'm afraid he's."
"You're at the mall? I'll be on my way," responded Quatre quickly, and hung up.
The few minutes it took for Quatre, Trowa, Heero and Wufei to arrive seemed like an eternity to Rei. Staring at the prostrate body of a man she had known for less than a day.yet somehow it seemed that she knew him from somewhere else…somewhere she couldn't quite place. He was still breathing, if raggedly, and his closed eyes made him look angelic, somehow. For the first time, Rei was struck by how handsome Duo really was. And brave: following her into battle against monsters with superhuman abilities far beyond his own. And now...he was dying, if not dead already.

Death had never scared Rei. She knew that if she were to die, she would be reincarnated with her Princess. But Duo had no reassurance of that, and he was still willing to risk his life for people he'd never met.
Oh, Kami-sama, Rei thought in despair. I don't want to be responsible for any more deaths, any more pain. It's my fault: I was the one who persuaded him to fight. I never thought about consequences, I just jumped into action and didn't think about the lives I put in danger. Ami-chan was always there to balance the risks and make the plans. But I'm not part of a team now. I'm on my own and I have to be careful. Rei hadn't realized how accustomed she'd grown to being with the other Senshi. She felt their absence like a gaping hole blown through her heart. Why had they sent her here? Why did they seem so angry at her? There were so many questions Rei needed to know the answers to. Head spinning in grief and fatigue, Rei barely noticed when the boys arrived and didn't care when a pair of strong, muscular arms lifted her gently off her feet and helped her into a car.

Rei sat, reeling in pain that was both emotional and physical, and felt someone help her into a white, clean building. She lay down on a bed—or was it a table? Rei didn't care—and felt her broken body shake with sobs as she wept for her friends, for Duo, for herself…Rei's vision blurred and then everything went dark as she spiraled into unconsciousness.

~~~**~~~

It had been two long weeks since she had landed in the lake outside of Quatre's mansion, and Rei had grown to know the five young men like brothers-albeit brothers from a highly nuclear family. Duo, thanks to some futuristic technology Rei wasn't sure about and quick reactions from Rei, was still alive and well, although he would have to take physical therapy classes for at least another month. Quatre was still just as kind and generous as he had been from their first meeting, and Trowa was finally opening up and proving to be a nice person underneath the cold façade. Wufei was still rather sexist and cold, but Rei could tell he was beginning to warm to her.

The only person who remained distant from Rei was Heero. It seemed as if he was taking great pains to avoid her at all costs. Whenever she entered a room, he would leave it. If she tried to talk to him (which wasn't often; she felt strangely nervous around Heero), he would end the conversation quickly and curtly. It was beginning to seem like Heero secretly despised her. But other times…it wasn't quite the same way. She had caught Heero staring at her dreamily more times than coincidences allowed, and sometimes she had wandered off into a remote wing of the mansion, just to feel the gaze of his Prussian blue eyes following her. Other times it seemed that just as she turned, there would be a small flash of light coming from his laptop.

Rei had mixed feelings about Heero herself; she tingled all over when she heard his voice, and when she saw him she would get an odd thrill down her spine. But he was such an enigma! A puzzle Rei was all too willing to work out.

After staying in the hospital for about a week, Rei had returned to the Winner mansion. She had been too tired until that day to unpack the bags of clothing she had bought with Duo. But, opening the doors of her antique wardrobe, she saw to her amazement that it was completely full of frilly pink dresses—similar to the one Rei herself had been wearing when she landed at Quatre's house. She mused on this for a while, but headed down to the dining room for dinner when it was announced over the room intercom. That night, they were having sushi and udon-Quatre was being polite and serving Japanese food so that Rei found it easier to adjust to staying in a strange house. It was excellent, like all the food served at Quatre's.

 Rei exchanged pleasant chit-chat about the upcoming holidays, and then got into a deep discussion with Trowa about characters from Seven, a book they had both read. Meanwhile, on the other end, Duo had made some rather blatant comments on Wufei's sexual orientation *cough cough* (A/N: No, the pilots are all straight in this. I'm not very good at writing yaoi / shounen-ai / shoujo-ai) and was busy trying to stop Wufei from killing him, aided by Quatre. Thinking that maybe Quatre knew what to do with the dresses that were currently occupying her wardrobe, Rei spoke up about it.

"Quatre-kun?" she asked, trying to distract him from breaking up the fight between Wufei and Duo.

"Uh, yes, Rei-chan? Wufei, don't, that's a family heirloom!"

"I was looking through my wardrobe and I found it full of frilly pink dresses." Wufei stopped dead. He was staring at Rei with realization dawning in his eyes.

"So, I was wondering if they belonged to one of your sisters or something, and if so, if I could throw them away?"

"No!" cried Wufei, springing from his seat and rushing to Rei's side, something like pleading in his eyes.

"I mean, no," he repeated in a more normal tone. "Here, I'll help you get rid of them."

 Rei and Wufei left the dining room and headed up to Rei's room.

"Look, Wufei," Rei finally said, "I just wanted to say, about the day I got here? You know, when we got into that huge screaming fight and stuff? Well, g—gomen nasai. I thought at first it was pent-up stress, but I just had this urge to teach you a lesson. I guess it's because you reminded me…of me."

"Huh?"

"I'll begin at the beginning. When I was thirteen years old, I met a man named Kaidou Ace (manga timeline here folks!). I fell in love with him, but he didn't return my feelings and he broke my heart. Blinded with pain, I decided that I didn't need love, or friends, or anybody else. I was a loner who didn't trust, and I covered my broken heart with a mask of pride. I said that I hated men; that they were stupid and weak and idiotic, because I never wanted to fall in love or feel that pain again.

"Well, time passed and I met my friends, and they taught me how to trust again. They showed me that making yourself vulnerable to pain is worth what you get in the process: friendship and love. And when I came here, and I saw you, I knew who you were. You were me. I could see it in your face. After all, hadn't I worn that very expression, not too long ago? I needed to teach you a lesson, and so I tried to get you to see that women weren't weak after all.

"But you knew that all along, didn't you, Wufei? In fact, the problem wasn't that women were weak, but that we were too strong. Who were these creatures who held such power over your heart? The power to break it and the power to rebuild it. Someone broke your heart, didn't she, Wufei. Not too long ago." Rei trailed off, staring at Wufei. He averted his eyes.

"Her name was Relena Peacecraft," Wufei admitted. "She used to live here, and…I…loved her. (Gasps are heard from the Relena haters!)

"She never looked my way, though. She was infatuated with Heero, and I never had a chance. You seem to understand all about me, Doctor Hino," he spat, "but I doubt you really understand what kind of torture it was while she was in this house. She moved out eventually, and the talk is that she's getting promoted in a while, but I hope that I never have to see her again. You can burn these dresses for all I care."

"No. Just help me put them in another room." The work was silent and easily done, and soon they were finished.

Short chapter, but moving, ne? I hope…REVIEWS PLEASE! I NEED REVIEWS! Don't worry, all you people who think that I am starving you of romance (a.k.a. Heero). The next chapter will be PLENTY romantic…hee hee hee…I have much planned. Writer's block has taken me, and that's why this chap is so short...help meeee…and, yes, Relena and the Senshi will soon play a large role in this.
'til next time,
Sailor Star Kindler