The cruelest dream, reality.

Chapter 5:

            "What are you working on, Duo-chan?" Usagi asked sweetly, standing directly behind him.  As far as she could tell, only the braided one and Wufei were currently in their dorm, both working on homework.  The books spread in front of the two were thick, and none that she recognized.  Of course, the many years since she had gone to school had changed much of the curriculum.  Though she had moved around a bit, so she had studied at some schools, such as the one were she had seen Duo.  But she hadn't been paying much attention, mostly just drifting.

            "Oh, some research on the legendary sailor senshi," he muttered, now reading on of the texts.  He was whining, but he'd survived Wufei's wrath before.  He paused, however, when he realized that the person speaking to him wasn't Wufei.  Or even male.  "What the-" he looked up to see the face of Usagi staring at him.  "Shit!" he swore, leaping up out of his seat, drawing his gun and pointing it at her.

            "Don't you know its rude to point at people?" Usagi said lightly, grinning at the pilot.  "I think it should be me who is upset.  You all shipped out on me without telling, and that is the utmost of rudeness.  I expected better from representatives of the colonies."

            "How did-"  Duo stopped talking, knowing he would only babble if he tried to say anything coherent.

            "What the hell are you talking about, woman?" a harsh voice demanded from her, coming from behind her.  Usagi turned around to see a pissed off Wufei, also pointing a gun at her.  She wondered how he got behind her without her noticing.  Trigger happy, trigger happy… kept running through her mind.  "You know too much.  There is no guarantee that you will not sell us and the gundams to Oz."

            "Pft," she said waving her hand, as if dismissing the idea.  "Why should I care about Oz?  Or about the gundams?  If you all manage to blow up your planet, then there are other planets, other solar systems for me to go to."  Actually that was a lie.  She knew she would care if they destroyed Earth, if only because she had so many memories here.

            Wufei continued to glare at her.  "Then why do you follow us?"

            Usagi shrugged.  "I felt like it.  You are the most interesting thing happening right about now, you know."  She guessed that they wouldn't believe her, but what did she care?  She was almost getting bored with life.  She wanted to do something, maybe save to world again?  Though even that was losing its appeal. 

            She would leave that to these five pretty boys.  If she didn't know that there was no room in her heart for anyone but the deceased Prince of Earth, she would have been drooling over these five.  Even with the ridiculous age difference, they were tempting, to say the least.

            But back to saving the world.  Every time this happened, Usagi prayed that man kind would save its own ass.  But nearly every time, she ended up getting involved anyway.

Her eyes shifted past Wufei, staring at a random spot on the wall, completely ignoring the two boys.  She could remember every single battle, every single human life lost, but rare was it that she remembered past enemies.  It was as if, in the grand scheme of things, it was more important for her to remember those lost then those fought.  She could, for instance, still recall every single one of her mother's people lost on the moon, in an age long past, but she couldn't remember the name of the "ultimate evil" that had killed her lover in that same battle.

Usagi also knew that she had died at total of eighteen times, before she had taken the mantle of Sailor Cosmos.  Her friends, however, had each died hundreds and thousands of times more then her.  There was only one Sailor Cosmos, after all.

She wasn't sure if she would ever understand the mechanics behind senshi.  One would live forever, but still there were others, who would not but played a role as well.  The birth of a senshi was never known ahead of time, and some were reincarnated while others never came back.  She sighed, shaking her head, and pulled out a chair from Duo's table.  Usagi slumped down, her eyes refocusing on the twin gun barrels facing her.

The silver-haired girl sighed again.  "Will you get over it?" she hissed, exasperated.  Times like this I wish men remember magic.

            "Don't move."  A third voice was now threatening her.  She knew these men were slightly off their rockers, but even so, she couldn't understand the obsession with death.  Perhaps they were related to Hotaru-chan.  She ignored him and turned towards the door, seeing the other two had returned as well, from wherever it was they had gone. 

It is probably related to this 'Operation Meteor' that is often on their minds, she mused.  Unfortunately, she wasn't good enough at reading much deeper then surface thoughts, nothing like Rei-chan's awe inspiring abilities.  In any case, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know what lay deep in the minds of these assassins.  She had lived through much, but somehow she got the impression that those chosen for a task such as piloting a Gundam wouldn't have had the most pleasant of backgrounds.

            The blonde pilot, Quatra, was confused, she could tell.  He had enetered the room with Trowa Barton, slightly behind Hiiro, to find his team members all ready to shoot the girl from their past house.  His heart wanted to stop this, but his head knew very well the risks that this girl brought with her.

            Usagi heard that, and wanted to snarl.

            But the last pilot, oh ho, he was a mystery.  If she didn't know any better, Usagi would have thought that Trowa Barton didn't think at all.  She could not hear a single thought from him.  A mystery indeed.  But his eyes were trained on her, clearly watching and waiting.  He would support his fellow pilots, no doubt.

            Oh, how she could easily hate mankind.

            But I can't.  I can't hate.  It's a requirement for job, yanno.  She wanted to scream, her emotions were so thoroughly twisted by these young men.  Hate, hate, hate. 

            She was about to take the offending guns away from the young men when Hiiro spoke up.

            "I will kill you."  He delivered his favoured phrase in a complete monotone, something she had noted he used quite often.

            Something snapped in her.  She was Sailor Cosmos!  "Look," she snarled, leaping up and including all five of the men in her tirade.  "I can do whatever the hell I please.  I have no intention of selling you to Oz, or whatever other factions will rise up.  You can either let me stay around a while until I tire of you, or I can make your life hell.  It's rather amusing.  And don't bother shooting me again.  You will only be wasting your ammunition.  I don't like death-obsessed individuals," she muttered the last under breath.  Finished, she huffed slightly, looking like a little child who had thrown a temper tantrum and believed to be in the right.  Her anger seemed completely gone.

            Receiving five blank stares, she grinned.  Her rapid mood changes were believed to be caused by insanity, or so her best friend Rei had so often teased.  Insanity almost sounds fun.  Wish I may, wish I might, she giggled to herself.  She giggled again, this time out loud.  "I'll let you think about it.  Ja ne!" she said in Japanese, having switched back and forth from English through various times.  She disappeared, but somehow Hiiro was left with a feeling that she truly would be back.

            "I have changed," a small woman whispered to herself.  She was seated precariously on the edge of a dock, her feet dangling in an unnamed sea.  She hadn't even known she could change.  She had thought the shift of perspective had been permanent, that time not-so-long ago that everyone she loved had disappeared, like Ami's mists.  Like they had all slipped through her finger...

            Usagi stared at her hands.  They were pale, flawless, never showing the scars that should covered them completely.  She crossed her arms, and let her hands rest on her shoulders.  She shifted her gaze to the water before her.  Had it been but a few months before, she would have immediately linked the blue water to Michiru-san.  And now, she was thinking about something else entirely.

            She shivered, but not from the cool sea breeze.  A few months ago she had not yet met the five young men that now served as her only tie to this world.  Her anger had been so great.  She had raged.  She had wanted to hate mankind.  She had thrown the jewel that gave her life, that nourished her, and so filled her.  It was as if grief had changed her utterly.

            And now, she felt almost normal.  She no longer felt as if her soul had been ripped into pieces and roughly sewn back together.  The pieces of soul had settled, leaving her more the she had been.  She missed her friends terribly, but somehow, the arrival of the five pretty boys in her life had banished her anger.

            How intriguing.

            How right the poor 01 pilot was.  Usagi showed up at various times, random and with no regard to where or when.  She appeared to live to torment them, Hiiro especially.  It seemed that something about the five pilots was irresistible to her and her now-apparent sense of humour, as twisted as it was.  She followed them occasionally, or helped them with homework, or stole their guns if she felt like it.  It seemed she did these things at random, just to get a rise out of them. 

She was like a sprite, Quatra thought.  Always flitting about, but not a true dweller of this world.

Usagi giggled again when she picked up that thought.

            However, the moment the pilots left the Earth, Usagi seemed to disappear.  They saw nothing of her while they were fighting Oz in space, or on a colony.

            That all changed with the introduction of the Zero System.

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I realize it has been a long time since I updated.  Just be thankful this is even here.  I have pretty much stopped writing fanfiction, as I am concentrating on things such as my original stories, school, and life in general.  Thanks a bunch for the reviews, and if I have time and/or enough interest, I'll finish this thing. 

I have noticed a change in Usagi's attitude from the first chapters.  Has anyone else noticed that?  I figure it's because the more I write her, the more defined she becomes to me, and so the more her personality will settle.  She is flighty right now, but that is intentional.

And yes, Just as things seemed to be making sense, the rest of the plot is introduced.

Bai bai!