Disclaimer: My sincere gratitude to Takeuchi-sensei who created this wonderful world for us to dream in. respectful bow in the general direction of Japan As we all know, all rights belong to her. I hope you enjoy my portrayal of her creations.

Hi Tasuki and Koji! I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Four. Four reviewers, hahahahaha...

Ok, disclaimer complete. Acknowledgement complete. Bad Count imitation complete. ^-^ All that's left is a quick note. It may be a couple of weeks until I can update again. I'm going on travel for work, and I've promised not to use my work computer to access this site until I know all the spyware and adware have been cleaned off of it. I may take pity and sneak in, but I hate breaking my word. For some reason, I never have a problem on my home computer (2 firewalls perhaps?), but I've gotten some real bad ones on my work computer. So, I'm sorry to make you wait (um, is this a bad cliff hanger? {Scan down....} Ehn.... Not too bad), but unless Elflina or Ree tells me things are ok, you'll just have to wait until the last week of April. And last but not least, the review request....

I do not write for reviews, but I sure enjoy compliments, constructive criticism, and grammatical corrections. So if you feel like it, please press that little review button, and let me know what you think. - Raya ^-^

The Sleeper

Chapter 6 – Lost...

*~*~*~ Crown Parlor *~*~*~

June, Bessa, Celeste, and Pallas watched with shocked expressions as their princess walked out the door and down the street. Celeste shifted nervously in her chair, an uncertain look on her face. "What... What now?"

Their eyes turned towards the Time Key as if drawn by a magnet. That was their ticket home. The "key" to their duty. No one moved to touch it.

"It's our job," Bessa whispered. "Our duty. But..."

Once again, the four girls felt torn between their two sworn duties. On the one hand, defense of the Crystal Palace was their responsibility. Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter protected the city, but Pallas, Ceres, Vesta, and Juno were supposed to be the last line of defense at the Palace itself. The girls took this duty very seriously. They had trained long and hard memorizing the passages they could find, finding shortcuts to key positions, and knowing all it's strengths and weaknesses. No-one knew the Palace better. Except Lady, it seemed.

On the other hand, it was their sworn duty to protect the Princess as she protected the Queen. She was their friend as well as Princess, which made the decision before them four times as hard. No-one noticed as a tall figure walked quietly over.

"I wish," Celeste began, reaching out for the key, when a husky voice interrupted her. "Good afternoon, ladies. Imagine meeting you here."

Celeste snatched the key out of sight, then turned to stare wide-eyed at the woman who had interrupted them. Her dark green hair was caught up in a partial bun at the back of her head, then flowed down her back to her waist. She wore a black skirt suit, with a white shirt, and low black pumps. Her dusky face and garnet eyes were unreadable. Seeing she had their attention, she tilted her head and continued. "And where is Small Lady?"

"Sma... Small Lady? Who?" Celeste stuttered. She tried hard to keep her expression surprised and neutral, but felt her eyes going even wider. Across the table, Bessa paled and clenched her hands. Pallas blinked rapidly, and took a deep breath. Juno's eyes narrowed. Somehow, she managed not to change her expression any further. The temperature around the table dropped 20 degrees. "I... I'm sorry, but you must have us confused with someone else," Celeste continued.

Although she didn't let it show, Setsuna smiled with satisfaction inside. The aura of agonized confusion that had surrounded the table was replaced by one of determined protectiveness. In her decidedly biased opinion, that was a better frame of mind.

"Oh?" She gave a small knowing smile. "My apologies then. I did not mean to interrupt." She bowed, turned, and walked out of the restaurant, feeling their eyes on her the whole way.

"She knows," Bessa said with icy fear. "Somehow, she knows Lady-chan is here, and she's going to look for her."

"We can't let that happen," Juno said, voice trembling with suppressed hostility. The four girls stood simultaneously, and walked quickly to the door, never taking their eyes off the green-haired woman. Unazuki blinked in surprise, then shook her head and went to clean off the table.

As they walked out into the street, she seemed to disappear. "There," Pallas said, pointing to an alley beside Crown. They rushed in, to find the woman waiting for them. "You don't know her? You still have a lot to learn." With that, she vanished before their eyes.

Pallas, June, and Bessa turned to their leader in panic. "Spread out," Celeste snapped. "First one to find her call everyone else." With that she ran to the entrance of the alley, followed by the others. She paused as Pallas called out. "But don't transform unless there's danger! Remember, they can track us that way!" The others nodded, then dashed off to the four corners of Juuban, Tokyo.

*~*~*~ Streets of Juuban *~*~*~

Lady clutched the backpack to her as she ran sobbing down the familiar streets. 'Alone. I thought I didn't have to do things alone anymore. Why can't they understand? Don't they FEEL how important this is?'

A motorcycle going the other way suddenly pulled off the road and came to a stop. It quickly made a U-turn, and drove up beside the running girl. Gasping in surprise and fear, she turned off into another road. The bike continued to follow her until she came to a playground. Then, it dashed in front of her and blocked her path. She froze, then prepared to transform.

"Yo, Little One," the rider called, removing her helmet. "Are you all right? What's going on?"

"Ha... Haruka-san?"

The white-haired senshi of Uranus smiled back at her. Sitting on a red motorcycle, dressed in brown leather pants and jacket and a mint green shirt, she reached over and hung the helmet off the handlebar nearest to Lady.

"Ha... Haruka-san? Haruka-san!" Sobbing, Lady threw herself at the leather clad figure.

"Whoa! Easy there! It's all right," Haruka soothed as her eyes went from teasing to surprised to hard in an instant. "It's all right. You're safe now. It's ok." As she stood calming her young princess, she noticed something... odd... from the backpack that was pressed up against her. Odd, yet familiar. It felt like...

Just as she was about to pinpoint the feeling, Lady stepped away from her wiping the last of her tears off her face. "I... I'm sorry," she whispered in embarrassment. "I just couldn't hold it in anymore." She blinked her swollen eyes and stared at Haruka's leather jacket. "Oh! I'm sorry. I hope I didn't ruin it!" she added a bit worriedly.

Haruka felt amazement melt into pride as she saw how quickly the younger girl regained her composure. She'd always had more control than her mother. She'd had to learn it at a very young age, biologically speaking. But during her last stay here, she had also learned to relax that control in peaceful times. Something was obviously wrong. "Nah, it's all right. It's rainproof."

"Rainproof?" Lady blinked at her in puzzlement a moment, then gave her a watery chuckle. "Right. So when did you get the new bike?"

"This?" Haruka asked in a proud voice reaching out to stroke the machine. "Oh a few months ago. Guess I must've scared you. I didn't realize you wouldn't recognize me."

Lady was silent a moment, debating. 'Is it knowledge of the future? Puu is trusting me to do the right thing. But... If they follow me, I'll need help. And they'll need to be warned.' She gave a small nod, then replied. "Well, a little."

Haruka raised an eyebrow, swung off the bike, and waited. Lady looked into her fierce, yet patient grey eyes and continued. "I'm afraid an enemy might be following me."

"An enemy?" came another voice from her left. Lady spun around and spied a woman in a pale blue dress with a pale gold scarf around her neck standing a few feet away holding a violin case. She smiled a greeting at the aqua-haired senshi of Neptune.

"Michiru-san. Yes. I hope I threw them off on my way here, but I can't be sure."

"More trouble at home, huh?" Haruka asked, leaning against her bike and crossing her arms.

"Mmm. Someone attacked us. They're looking for something called The Sleeper."

"And you brought it here to hide," Michiru said, walking over to Haruka. She laid her violin case on the seat behind her partner, then stood close beside her.

Lady nodded without a hint of shame. "Yes. They're extremely powerful. So powerful, they...." she stopped, suddenly unsure. "Well, powerful enough to be a serious threat," she ended uncomfortably. Haruka and Michiru both narrowed their eyes as their brains filled in what had not been said. But, "And this Sleeper?" was all that Michiru asked.

Lady clutched the backpack a little more tightly. "Saturn," she whispered. She watched as the two older senshi paled. "I have to protect her. And you have to protect Hotaru-chan. If they manage to follow me, she'll be in danger, too."

"Hotaru may object to that," a husky voice said to her right.

"Puu!!!" Lady spun and smiled radiantly at her oldest friend. Then her smile dimmed as she remembered the conversation. "I know. But she really is in serious danger."

Michiru nodded in acknowledgment. "We'll try to make her see that," she said. "But she is her own senshi. The only one she really answers to is Usagi-san."

Lady looked unhappy at this until Setsuna said, "Don't worry, Small Lady. She may be a teenager, but she's not unreasonable. She has enough experience to know that sometimes it's better to stay quiet. Unlike some others I could name," she ended with a smile. Lady looked at her in puzzlement. "It appears your friends didn't recognize me," she added.

"My friends?" For a moment, her heartache showed on Lady's face. Haruka's eyes hardened even more as she was finally given a clue to the last thorn tearing her princess' heart. "They've never met any of the Outers." Suddenly, Lady looked over at Setsuna again. "Wait. What do you mean they didn't recognize you? They've gone back to try and help."

Setsuna shook her head, still smiling. "No, apparently, they've decided to stay. They think you might be in danger or something." Her eyes danced with suppressed amusement as she said the last statement.

"Danger?" Lady asked blankly. "But... No-one has followed me yet, have they?" She, Michiru, and Haruka watched as Setsuna shook her head. "Then..."

Another voice called out, cold and determined, cutting her off. "Leave her alone!"

*~*~*~

A/N – Greetings again, all! Just wanted to say that, as you can tell, this follows the manga more than the anime. Therefore, Uranus' hair is white, not tawny.