Chapter 1

Alls Well in Crystal Tokyo

"Where could she be?" mumbled the old white cat, "I wonder if the Queen could put some sort of bind on her so that she won't be able to leave the palace."

Artemis had to stop to take a rest. he'd been searching all morning and his old legs weren't quite what they used to be.

"Well.... the sooner I find her, the sooner I can go home and rest," he thought. With that in mind, he hoisted his little cat body up and continued the search.

"MINA! MIIIIINA!"

"Hmmp! She won't come if she hears me coming," he thought to himself. "But gotta keep trying."

"Here I am Artemis...." said a voice behind him.

He almost jumped out of his skin, turning around was the objective of his search; a teenager with strawberry blonde hair, shoulder length, and bright blue eyes.

"YOU!" he snarled, "You!...you... I've been looking for you all day....oh! Why do you do this to me? Why? I don't know, you must enjoy watching me stumble all over this city looking for you!"

The girl slightly blushed, and bowed her head to the side. "I'm sorry...I was just..trying to find some time alone."

"Well, if you want to get some alone time, just clear it with your mother first!" The cat turned around and started walking back in the direction he came. After a few moments he stoped and turned around. "Are you coming?!?"

"Yes" sighed the girl. "Artemis," she paused, "Have you ever...wondered, well you know... what your doing here?"

"Well of course I have! Like right now for instance. I'm wondering what I'm doing out here in the middle of nowhere, looking for you and why I'm not at home enjoying all the luxuries of royal life. You know, you've really had it easy, being a princess and all. All you have to do is study and act properly..which I might add, you're not so good at. Why when your mother was young, she had to go to school and do chores and being a senshi. She really had her hands full. Yes, her and the other senshi..."

Chibi Mina cut her walking companion off. "Mother said back in those days you used to be really easy going."

"Yes well back in those days I didn't have Diana to worry about or YOU! If you want me to be more "cool" just stay in the palace and be a good girl."

"I try..I really do its just soemtimes I want to get away from the palace and just have sometime to do things on my own..."

"You really don't know how easy you have it do you..." chuckled the cat "Your mother, the Queen and all the others sacrafised so much to make this world peaceful, a world where you won't have to worry about the things that they did, mostly a world where you don't have to fight."

"But...what if I want to fight..." Mina glanced down at Artemis.

"Chibiusa and the other senshi do any fighting that needs to be done. Theres nothing you need to worry about." Artemis corrected her.

"But.. I'm part of Small Lady's court... I should be protecting her...afterall one day she has to rule..and then who will fight?" Mina looked off dreamily.

"The Silver Crystal seals off anything that would want to attack this city, and it will until this kingdom ceases to rule. The crystal's power has replaced the senshi. In otherwords my young Princess, there is no need for anymore senshi." Artemis sighed a breath or relief now that they had reached the palace. "Now, hurry up, its getting dark. No need for you to be outside!"

"No I guess not." Mina sighed and followed Artemis up the steps to the palace.

Small Lady plopped down on Chibi Mina's bed.

"So I heard you took an extended stroll today." Chibi Usa chuckled. "Then Robo-cat tracked you down."

"Yeah..man news spreads fast around here doesn't it." Mina shook her head.

"Well what else is there to talk about around here.." Chibi Usa looked around, "besides the ever increasing dullness of the palace."

"Heh, you noticed too huh! And here I though I was the only one slowly dying of boredom." Mina joked.

"No your not, don't worry. I'm right there with you." Usa was now fiddling with the stuffed bear beside Mina's pillow.

"Yeah, but you at least get clued into what going on around here, what being a senshi and all..." Mina's voice trailed off.

Usa seemed to be intensly focusing on the stuffed bear.

"Um well, I'm pretty tired, I'll.. I'll see ya tomorrow!" Mina threw on a fake smile and said goodnight.

"Goodnight, I'll...um yeah." Usa also put on a fake smile as she left the room and shut the door.

"Yeah, I know..I'm never going to be anyone besides a princess a.." Mina mumbled to herself, "a lady."

"CLUNK!"

A noise startled Mina out of bed. "whaaaa..." she mumbled as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. "Whaa was that?"

Her curosity took her over and she managaed to pull herself out of bed. She quietly slunk to her door and slowly opened it. Mina was half expecting to see Artemis waddling down the hall sleep walking. Instead, she saw a dark robbed figure disapearing around the hallway corner. Something shiny caught Mina's eye.

"They must have dropped it!" she thought to herself.

Mina checked to see if anyone else was coming and then crept into the hallway. She bent down and picked up the shiny object. It looked like some sort of crystal. It seemed to also be changing from a light pink to a silver color.

"Well, better go return this to them," she thought to herself.

Rounding the corner, Mina saw that the robbed figure was gone. She ran to the end of the hall, but there was no sign of them.

"Well, I'll just give it to Robo-cat in the morning." Mina mumbled to herself. She started back to her bedroom.

Then the voice of the Queen reached Mina's ears.

"Whaaa... what is she doing up at this hour?" Mina thought. The voiced seemed to be coming from the left wing of the palace. Mina tip-toed towards the voice. It seemed to be coming from inside what Mina like to call the "senshi conference room." Thats where everyone went whenever the Queen wanted to have a meeting. Mina had only been inside once, back when she was young and had the flu and her mother didn't want to leave her alone. However, the Queen made her leave and instructed Artemis to look after her.

Mina was just at the door when it moved. Someone was coming out!

"Oh crap!" thought Mina, "I gotta get out of here."

Mina ran inside the room she was closest too. Peeking through the slightly open door, she saw the Queen, her mother, Chibi Usa and all the other senshi, not just the inners walking by. Intermingled with them were several of the dark robbed figures. After they had passed, Mina opened the door she was hiding behind and ran back to her room.

"That was strange!" she thought.

Looking down, she saw that the crystal had turned a soft orange and now seemed to be glowing.

"Whoa! This is way cool! I wonder what it is..." Mina examined the crystal even closer. Inside the crystal there seemed to be dust that was trapped in a swirling formation. Apon further inspection, Mina saw that the dust was in fact swirling. Mina started to feel tired.

"Well its only 2:06 in the morning..maybe I can still get back to sleep."

She slipped the crystal into her drawer and climbed into bed. Within a few seconds she was fast asleep again.

The sun shone brightly on Mina's face waking her up. Sighing, she got out of bed and got herself ready for the day. Within a half hour, she was ready to greet the day and went down stairs to get some breakfast. On the way to the great hall, she passed Artemis.

"Hey Artemis!" Mina chirped.

Artemis didn't answer, he just looked very very tired.

Apon entering the hall, Mina noticed that everyone looked tired, in fact it look as if nobody got any sleep.

Mina ate her breakfast in silence, the slight buzz that had been going on when Mina had entered stopped once her presence became noticeable.

Mina was almost done with her breakfast when a strange lady walked into the hall. Princess Mercury got up immediatly and welcomed the woman.

"Lady Minako!" Princess Mercury called.

Lady Minako, that was Chibi Mina's official name. She was also known as Princess Venus, but that was also her mother's title. So to avoid confusions, everyone just called Mina "Lady Minako."

"Yes!" Mina got up from her breakfast and turned towards Mercury.

"This is Her Highness Lady Estella. She is going to be staying with us for a little bit. Oh Lady Minako, would you mind going to the garden and finish arranging the rose bouquet that I started?"

Lady Estella looked at Mina oddly and happy for an excuse to leave, Mina nodded and headed towards the garden. However, she stopped and lingered by in the curtains by the entrance to the hall.

"I thought I met the royal court last night." Lady Estella said.

"Oh, well, well that was just Lady Minako, Sailor Venus's daughter. Shes not part of the court you met last night. Shes just part of the court that we put on for the public. Shes not actually a senshi."

"Oh, I see." Lady Estella nodded.

"HA! How do you like that!" Mina thought to herself. "they don't even think of me as part of the "court"."

"Does she not have the powers of her mother?" Lady Estalla continued.

"No I believe she does have some power within her, its just that they will probaly never be awakened. She has grown up as a princess, its too late for her to be a solider and quite frankly, no one ever planned her to be one."

Tears welled up in Mina's eyes. "It's not fair she thought, Usa gets to be a senshi, how come I don't? I wonder if the other ladies get to be senshi."

The daughters of the other senshi lived out side the palace. Mina only lived there because Venus had opted to stay in the palace after her husband had died.

Mina slunk away towards the garden, tears now flowing from her eyes. After she had arranged the roses for Mercury, she retired to her room where she promply feel down on the bed and cried.

"I should just run away, Mercury said it herself, I'm not really needed!" Mina sobbed into her pillow. "I just can't stand this anymore! If I stay here, I'm never going to amount to anything. I'll just rot in this palace. I wish I could go back to the past like Usa did. Perhaps I could become a senshi, it is in my blood afterall. Noo, I don't know the first thing about fighting, and I don't have a henshin stick."

Mina had had this conversation with herself many times before. "Usa used her mother's original hensin brooch when she went back to the past. Perhaps if I could get my mother's old one....then I could do it too. No, she would never give it to me... and Pluto would never allow me to go back into the past."

Mina sobbed into her pillow again.

"It's worth a shot, I'm never going to be anything if I just stay here crying."

Mina dried her tears and headed to her mother's room.

"No ones here, good." She whispered to herself as she opened the door.

"Now if I was mom, where would I keep my old henshin stick..." Mina mused to herself.

After twenety minutes of searching, Mina was ready to give up. She sat down on her mother's bed and picked up a picture of her father.

"Dad, if you were still here, you'd let me be my own person, right?"

The photograph just smiled back at her. Mina felt herself starting to cry again. Then something on the back of the photograph caught her eye. It was a small woodon knob. Mina touched it and suddenly a trap door on the back of the picture frame opened and two orange sticks fell out.

"AWW!" Mina cried for joy. "I found them... this..this plain one must be her first one." She grabbed the stick and put the other star shaped stick back into its hiding spot.

Slipping the wand into her pocket, Mina left the room. On the way back to her room she ran into Chibi Usa.

"Mina, what are you doing around here?!?" Usa seemed to be on edge.

"I was just going for a walk, chill out." Mina pushed past Usa and continued to her room. Once inside, she locked the door and hastily began to gather her things.

"Now, what to bring." she stuffed some clothes into a backpack. Looking around her room, she put a few more trinkets and essentials in. She also grabbed some of her jewelry and put it in the front pocket of her backpack.

"I can sell these for some money," She thought.

Then she remember the crystal from the night before. She removed from the drawer and slipped it into her pocket.

Mina put on her coat and her backpack, kissed some of her stuffed animals goodbye and left the room. No one was in sight as she walked down the hall.

"I saw Pluto here the other night, I wonder if she stil is here. If she is, that means the time space door is unguarded... I could go back to the past where no one would find me!"

Mina turned around and went in the direction to the portal to the Time-Space door. She slipped inside and to her delight, she saw that Pluto was not gaurding the door. Now estatic, Chibi Mina ran to door. "Past! here I come," she shouted and opened the door. In a second she was gone.