Remember me? I'm back. I had to take an Uzi and hunt my muse down since she went on vacation and didn't leave a forwarding address. Add to that moving across the country (after just returning from Tokyo), moving into a haunted murder house, the crashing and subsequent re-designing of my website and getting a new job…my writing has been sporadic at best, but I am back now, and regularly and will no longer make excuses.

                We are almost to the end of an epic that I never expected this fic to be. It blossomed and grew. To answer many questions: the changes Usagi has gone through…so have I. The betrayal, the denial, the usage by others. Is this Usagi or is this me, I'm not quite certain.

                I am accepting submissions on my website of fanfics if you want to submit. Right now it's all HP, but I will happily add SM if there are people who would like me to post their work, so let me know. My new website addy: www.draconis-carpe-noctem.com. Check it out ne?

                Standard disclaimers. Read and review but be kind. No flames, and good ratings. Enjoy. I write based on reviews, so let's get them in!

                Usagi sat on her bed, not wrapped in agony and tears as Haruka and the others thought they would find, not held tightly in the embrace of Seiya's arms, no, what they saw both thrilled and terrified the hell out of them. Usagi stood in front of her window dressed only in her robe, her head bowed. Power was emanating off her in waves and it was obvious she was furious. "What did you do to him?" she asked in a voice they didn't recognize.

                "Oh a little bit of this, a little bit of that." Haruka said lightly. "How are you doing?"

                "I have done what needed to be done." She replied curtly.

                "You needed to lay with him?" Michiru arched an eyebrow.

                "I wanted to out of love, out of commitment and out of desire for him. I needed to so that my purity could not be used as a weapon against me." Usagi turned from them and Haruka's eyes teared up at the sight of her. Her long hair cascaded to the floor as her eyes reflected wisdom far too old for one so young. "Did you know that one of my Trials was one of fidelity? Do you know that I said no to the one man who has worshipped and adored me from the moment he set eyes on me?"

                "Yet you stayed true to the one you love."

                "Loved." Usagi snapped at Unazuki. "I cannot tolerate this anymore. One minute he loves me, the next he hates me. One minute he treats me like a child, the next – a woman. One moment he thinks I'm the most pure soul in creation, the next I am the Destroyer. He has toyed with me for the last time. I won't have it. I deserve better than this and him. If he chooses to return to me as I'm sure he will, I won't make it so easy for him even if I do take him back."

                "That sounds a bit militant Usagi." Motoki said, smiling. "You going to join the other side?"

                "Couldn't do that, women are insane." She winked at Haruka and Michiru who laughed.

                "So, what do we do now?"

                Usagi tilted her head to the side. "We wait. I have company coming and she should be here very soon."

                "Where is Hotaru?" Michiru questioned. "I haven't seen her in some time."

                "Carrying out my orders." Usagi replied.

                Motoki walked towards Usagi and reached for her. "Usagi I want you to know …"

                She held up a hand, silencing him. "No Motoki, say nothing. Whether it is to bless him or to curse him, I do not need to hear it. My path is set, my goals set in motion. I now know what it is I have to do, and with my last Trial, with Mamoru leaving me, I now know who is behind this masquerade."

                "Who is it Usagi?" Haruka asked, eyes wide.

                "You're not ready to know."

                "I'm ready!" Haruka protested.

                Usagi clenched her fists at her side, one moment appearing frail and delicate, the gentlest of all creatures, in this instant appearing strong as steel. Michiru tilted her head to the side, observing the entire thing, realizing that this entire debacle that had occurred, wasn't about what Usagi had to go through to achieve the Throne, no it was more than that. This…mission as it were, had turned it into a question, and the question was: Who is Tsukino Usagi?

                "Hello Rei."

                Rei froze, a shudder coursing through her. She said nothing, just kept her back to the door. In retrospect, considering who stood there, it was not the wisest course of action for her.  She turned slowly, face draining of all colour. She had made a stupid move, and now she was going to pay for it. Standing framed in the doorway was Hotaru, far more deadly for her seeming innocence.

                "Why Hino Rei," Hotaru drawled as she stepped in the room. "You look like someone just walked over your grave."

"Haven't they?" Rei asked in a hoarse voice. She attempted to glare coolly at Hotaru, but it did no good. She had gone after death, and now death was going to make her pay. "Are you going to kill me now?"

                The question amused Hotaru, who smiled slightly. "Perhaps." She walked towards Rei. "You see, I could kill you, and no one would say otherwise, not even Usagi would question me, she trusts me that much."

                "She is a fool."

                "Ah, there you are wrong traitorous one. She is far too intelligent for her own good."

                "So what is to keep you from killing me, or that traitor behind you?"

                Hotaru glanced briefly at Minako before turning back to Rei. "My fight is not with you, despite my burning desire to turn this place into a vortex of death, yet I am not the only one with the dread power of life and death. One other has it as well."

                "And is too stupid to use it." Rei snorted.

                "You think so?" Hotaru arched an eyebrow. "Or is it just that she has restraint? That she has infinite patience with those who spurn, betray and hurt her?"

                "You make her sound like a God." Minako breathed from the background.

                "Isn't she?" Hotaru asked, cryptic as always. "That is neither here nor there. I cannot kill you Rei."

                "I knew it!" Rei crowed, her confidence returning with the reassurance of her life.

                "Why?" Minako asked, almost pleadingly.

                "She carries an innocent within her. I cannot take her life without killing one who does not deserve it. The sins of the parent cannot be carried over to the child. If I were to judge this child, I become no better than Rei, and I am." Hotaru explained. "Only one person has the authority and the ability to kill Rei."

                "She won't." Rei nodded in assurance.

                "So certain you seem." Hotaru smiled. "I like that."

                "You think she will?" Rei suddenly didn't seem so self-assured.

                "That I cannot say. I do not dare speak for her after all. She is Queen."

                "Why are you here?" Rei barked.

                "I originally was coming in peace, but you had me attacked. You attacked the power of death in an attempt to harness it and force it to serve you. Rei, I thought you gave yourself credit for your so-called brains."

                "Get on with it!"

                "I came to tell you the truth."

                "Truth? About what?"

                "Your child within is not Mamoru's." Hotaru told her.

                Rei's hand went to her abdomen. "What are you saying? I had Chiba Mamoru, we created this child together!"

                "You had a man that night, but it wasn't Mamoru."

                Rei thought rapidly, realizing that Hotaru's words only corroborated what Chibi Usa had told her the night of conception. "Who is the father then?"

                "Look closer to home, instead of farther away." Hotaru answered.

                Rei opened her mouth, but Hotaru and Minako were gone.

                "Open the door Motoki, I have a guest." Usagi said coolly, for all the world neither seeming nor sounding like herself.

                "How'd you know?"

                "Open the door. She is afraid out there."

                Motoki opened the door to see a panting Makoto leaning on the door. She stumbled slightly and then walked inside, kneeling at the sight of Usagi. "You've changed."

                "You haven't."

                "Why are you here?" Haruka asked abruptly, unnerved by Usagi and needing someone to strike out at. Michiru patted her arm in knowing sympathy, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

                "Usagi, it was wrong. I was wrong. She's insane, they both are. I seek protection. If I am marked to die, then I want to do it fighting on the side that I believe in. Rei and Chibi Usa are not those people." She closed her eyes.

                "You broke a sacred oath Makoto – a blood oath. Things like this are not easily forgiven nor forgotten." Usagi said, her expression stony.

                "I know, I know." Makoto said, tears in her eyes. "I have failed in my sacred duty, I turned against you when I should have believed. I never should have doubted you."

                "No, you shouldn't have." Usagi agreed. "I tried to take Minako back, and she has been disappointing. Getting herself recaptured by Rei, brainwashed. Never quite certain what side she is on. I am distressed at our Senshi of Love. Why then, should I believe that you would be any different?"

                "I am not Minako, you should know this."

                "I tend to doubt my previous experiences, having been shown that no one is trustworthy, save my Outer Senshi, and even there I fear I have sorely misjudged them." Usagi glanced briefly at Michiru and Haruka.

                Haruka frowned and arched an eyebrow at Michiru who shrugged.

                Makoto gritted her teeth as she adjusted her stance on the floor, raising her eyes to Usagi's.  "I did not give you permission to raise your eyes, lower them." She said waving a hand at her.

                Makoto instantly stared at the floor. "What would you have me do?"

                Usagi began to pace. "I have undergone Trials and faced things that would make the strongest of warriors weep and beg to be let off. I have come to know and understand things that would make the wisest scream in horror before blocking their ears for eternity, and through it all I remained the same – only stronger. Today, I find that it has changed."

                "Mamoru." Unazuki muttered in the background, spitting his name out like a curse.

                "Perhaps it was him, or perhaps it was the Me in the mirror." Usagi shook her head. "Either way, the end is coming…sooner than you think. Are you afraid Makoto?"

                "I am."

                "Of death?"

                "I do not fear death, for it is only leading me to the next great adventure."

                "Diplomatically put." Usagi smiled briefly. "How will you serve me?"

                "With all that I am."

                "I recall you making a similar vow and breaking it."

                "I give you my word."

                Usagi paused. "A tempting proposition Makoto. You give me your word? Unbinding? Unbreakable? The one thing in existence that defines you more than anything else ever could? You give me your word?"

                "Yes. Without cause or reservation."

                "Rise and look at me." Usagi ordered, sounding for all the world similar to Rei. Could her body have been taken over by Rei's spirit?

                Makoto stood and stared into the silver-blue eyes of Usagi, unable to see her reflection, as she would in a normal set of eyes. She was sucked in and absorbed, every bit of her laid bare to Usagi's scrutiny, no secrets, nothing hidden.  It should have been humiliating; instead it was exhilarating being so close to Usagi. Almost able to touch this glorious person who she had once been honoured to call a friend. "I have not been possessed. Rather, I have been freed." Usagi said softly in her ear. "I believe you Makoto and I take you back. I give you my protection, but know that it comes with a price, one that you might have to pay upon sooner rather than later."

                "I'm not afraid." Makoto told her firmly.

                A slow smile spread across Usagi's face. "I was counting on it."

                Chibi Usa paced, unable to think of a plan. All of her ideas had been drained from her and she didn't know how or why. She couldn't steal from Usagi, couldn't try to kill her…yet. What was left for her to do? Helios would rape her if she so desired, but did she want that yet? She shook her head in disgust. She was thinking like a petty and common criminal. She needed something that would paralyse Usagi, something to take her out of commission and open her up for Chibi Usa to reclaim what was hers. As if a light bulb was over her head, she got an idea. Why continue to send her lackeys out to do it for her? Usagi couldn't stand confrontation, and if she were faced with her repentant and dutiful daughter she would believe anything Chibi Usa said. For all that she had changed, for all that she had accomplished, she was still Tsukino Usagi, still her fool mother from the future and open to Chibi Usa's manipulation.  She nodded with satisfaction. If she cried, if she pleaded and wrung her hands petulantly, Usagi would cave like a stack of cards.

                "Luna!" she called.

                "My liege?" Luna curtsied as best she could.

                "Leave a message for Helios. He is to go and find Mamoru. Bring him to me undamaged and prepare him for my bed when I return…the original plan can still work."

                "Of course. Anything else?"

                "Tell Helios that he is not to come after me. If he shows up, he'll blow all my plans to hell."

                Luna stared at Chibi Usa with adoration in her eyes. "It is my pleasure to do that for you, and to serve you."

                "I know."

                Mamoru stood overlooking the water, wishing for a good typhoon to hit. He needed to rage, to vent, to scream. Why couldn't anyone understand what he saw when he looked at Usagi? "She is not what I thought she was." He muttered.

                "And you are wholly unworthy of her." A pause. "I saw it first, but I never told a soul…save Usagi. She remained amazingly strong to my power of coercion."

                He turned and his eyes widened. "You!"

                A brief laugh. "Me."

                "You're behind this entire gambit."

                "I am." A glance at the sky. "And judging from what I see, Usagi is moving into her Final Trial right about now."

                "She has done all of them since I left?"

                "She will do all of them as one."

                "That might kill her."

                "Better them than me."

                "How could you?"  Mamoru exclaimed.

                "How could I not?"

                Has anyone out there figured out who is behind this? Let me know in your reviews!