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"Hi there! Welcome to Justice Foods, how are you today?" Serena knew she didn't live a particularly exciting life, but the grocery store cashier job was paving the way to bigger and better things. At least...she hoped desperately that it would.

"Hello? Are you okay, Miss..." the elderly lady that Serena was helping waved her hand in front of the cashier's dazed face as she squinted at the name tag she wore. "Serena?"

At the sound of her name, Serena snapped out of her reverie and stared down at the customer. "I'm sorry."

"It looked like you were out in La-La Land. Are you okay?" she asked again.

Serena managed a nervous chuckle and a half-smile as she reddened. "Yeah, I think so." She ran the woman's purchase and collected the money. "Thanks for stopping by, have a good day!" She chirped with a genuinely fake smile.

"You too," the woman replied as she eyed over her receipt carefully. She arched an eyebrow as she met with some kind of discrepancy. Her gaze iced over as it met Serena's. Serena began to get nervous. "Is your manager somewhere where I can talk to him?"

Serena sighed quietly, and defeated. "Yeah, he's right at the service desk...let me get him for you." She locked her register as she went over to the service desk. She tried keeping her shoulders as square as she could. 'There's no need to jump to any conclusions here, girl.' She told herself. 'Maybe she just wants to make a positive comment to him...oh, yeah right. Don't fool yourself, Serena. You know she found something to complain to him about. Probably about me launching into hyperspace back there.' She fought back the urge to cry as she approached the store manager.

Paul Justice was a tall, balding man dressed nicely in a beige dress shirt and blue tie with coral and white streaks running across it, accompanied by blue dress pants. He was truly "Mr. Justice Foods" as he sported the store colors, just as he did every day. He looked away from the customer he was helping as she approached him. "Did you need something, Serena?"

"Yeah, Mr. Justice," she managed to croak out. "A customer wants to talk to you...register five."

"Another one?" He looked over to where the lady whom Serena had helped stood as she waved to him with the receipt still in her hand. He waved back with a smile. "And it's Mrs. Starks? Oh, Serena. See me in my office after I'm done speaking to her."

He hurried off to talk to Mrs. Starks, and left behind a slowly crumbling girl. She reached out a hand to stable herself on the counter, but slipped and ended up in a pile of choked sobs on the floor. This had not been one of her better days.

Meanwhile, in a dark corridor of Time, the scene in the grocery store played in front of three figures. As Mamoru continued to watch, his heart ached more and more. "I don't know how much of this I can bear to watch, Setsuna-san."

"Now you see how difficult my job is," the Senshi of Time replied with a smirk. "Fortunately, neither of you are bound to the rules of Time. I spoke to the King of Crystal Tokyo. He is aware of our mission, and has granted the two of you permission to go and interact with our princess. However, there is one stipulation."

Ami arched an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

Her garnet eyes turned serious and sent chills down both Ami and Mamoru's spines. "The queen is never EVER to know of this use of the time warp."

Mamoru chuckled. "Don't worry. All she'll ever know is that we were there to save her."

"Per usual," Pluto said under her breath with a smile. She knew how brave the future king was when Usagi was in danger.

"Setsuna-san?" Ami asked as she turned her eyes from the depressing scene unfolding in front of her to Pluto. "When in time is she exactly?"

"That's the most bizarre part of this whole situation," she replied. "But she's in your time. The only thing is that she's in some kind of alternate dimension."

"Alternate dimension?" Mamoru's breathing stopped.

"How can we use the time warp then?" asked Ami.

"It will be easier to monitor her as well as watch for those Brutes from here." Pluto answered simply. "The most puzzling question is why would they waste all that energy and take such incredible risks to use the time warp like this."

"Perhaps their itinerary is a bit more complex than we think," Mamoru mused.

"And perhaps one of us should stay here with you, Setsuna-san," Ami echoed. "That way, I can research Usagi-chan's situation while you watch for any more temporal displacements."

Pluto gave her a very tired smile. "That is an excellent plan. Also, I have several tools that may help you in this mission." She held out a device that resembled a very small hearing aid to Mamoru. "Here. This is a universal translator. I realize that handing out 30th century technology like this is foolish, but the situation calls for it."

"What does it do?" asked Mamoru as he took it from her.

"It is designed to fit into your ear, and it translates any language into something you can understand. Likewise, it broadcasts a language that everyone around you can understand." Pluto explained. "The King created this invention after he grew tired of miscommunications due to inadequate translations. It eliminated the need to create a single language for the entire planet. This is the first series, and it eventually evolved into something that can be surgically implanted."

Mamoru smirked at Pluto's history lesson. He inserted it into his ear after being instructed by Pluto. "Wow, I guess I turn out to be a pretty smart guy, huh?"

Pluto managed a small laugh. "The power source on that can only last a few days, though. Be sure to conserve as much as you can." She handed him a small device the size of a credit card. "This will let you communicate with us here. Ami-chan will be able to give you instruction with this."

"Cool," he replied as he slipped the device into his shirt pocket. "I'm ready to go."

Pluto raised her staff and a door appeared through the mist. "Go then. We will be in constant contact with you. Good luck, my Prince." Mamoru positioned himself over the large door as it slowly creaked open. "Here I come, Usako." Then he stepped through the door and was gone.

Pluto sighed and turned to Ami. "I can't decide if he's really brave, or just really stupid."

Ami smirked as she turned back to the window into Serena's life. The girl had pulled herself off of the floor and had started to trudge into the manager's office. "I think he's a little of both. Plus, he really loves her."

She nervously twirled a tendril of auburn hair around her finger as she sat in Mr. Justice's frigid office. Serena piled the rest of her hair in a messy bun on the top of her head to try to kill some of the built-up nervous energy. It hadn't worked. Her eyes darted around Mr. Justice's office décor. Nothing but promotional posters hung from the walls. She jumped at least a foot as he came into his office.

Mr. Justice went over to the large metal desk and sat down. He looked her in the eye and folded his hands as he sighed agitatedly. "Mrs. Starks had plenty to say about you, Serena. She said that you initially ignored her for a few minutes, and that she had to get your attention. And then she said that you scanned everything in so quickly, that you didn't even notice that you scanned almost everything in twice, and to top it all off, you cheated her about ten dollars. I'm not really concerned with what you think happened, because I saw her receipt, and I went into your drawer and gave her the change she thought she deserved."

"You did what?" Serena asked almost inaudibly.

"This isn't the first time this has happened, Serena." He lowered his eyes as he reached into a drawer for a reprimand form. "Is everything okay at home?"

Her eyes shot up as tears streamed like two rivers down her flushed face. "What kind of a question is that?"

He clicked his tongue. "Oh, right. You live alone."

"Yeah," she said as anger boiled in her voice. "And I don't have any family."

The gaze he gave her as he looked up from filling out the form showed little emotion and less compassion. "Serena, don't take it personally."

She gulped down another wave of angry tears as she looked back down at her hands folded tightly in her lap. She was ready to get up and leave. Anything to get out of that room!

"Here," he said simply as he turned the form around for her to read. "Sign this."

She took a deep breath as she raised her eyes and read the charges. "Offense: Deliberate rudeness and inconsideration to customer. Punishment: One week off without pay. Consequences if behavior continues: Termination."

She gulped at the last word written ominously in front of her. She sighed as she reached for the pen and signed her name hastily.

"The week off without pay begins the next pay period." Mr. Justice peeled off his carbon copy of the form and handed her a pink copy. "Now, can you please return to work and try to focus?"

Her eyes shot up again, and, against her better judgment, she narrowed them. "No sir, I think I want to go home now."

"I can't let you do that, we're too busy."

"So, you have enough time to waste the company's money talking to me in here, telling me that I'm a worthless slime? And now you want me to go back out there and work with money that I'm obviously not qualified to handle?"

"Serena, you need to straighten up, or I'll send you home."

"I thought you couldn't do that."

"Wow...they're really going at it," said a cashier at the service desk. She could see into the window to the door of Mr. Justice's office to see both of their red faces shouting at each other.

"Yeah," replied another. "Who'd have thought she'd have enough nerve?"

Both women were oblivious to several people leaving the lines they were supposed to operate. That is, until a tall man approached them. Both sets of eyes crept up the black-haired blue-eyed man as he neared the desk, and both jaws dropped. They looked at each other and took silent bets on whose line he would grace.

"Excuse me." A rich deep voice danced across their ears, and they both almost melted. "I was wondering if either of you could help me."

"Oh sure!" replied one cashier. "How can I help you?"

Mamoru raised an eyebrow. It always amazed him how weird some girls got around him. It had only been Usagi who saw through his good-looking exterior. He chuckled nervously. "Uh, I was looking for a cashier here. Her name's Us-...Serena."

"Serena?" the other cashier replied. "Oh! You must be the private investigator the company hired to watch her." She leaned over the counter and whispered to him. "She's always getting into serious trouble. They think she's stealing from the company too."

"Serena, GO HOME! And don't come back until your suspension is through!" Boomed a voice from behind a door. Soon after, a red-faced teary-eyed girl clutching a pink piece of paper blasted right past him and ran out the front door.

Both cashiers pointed after her. "That's her," they said.

Mamoru looked after her in shock. 'Dear God,' he thought. 'What have they done to you?' He recovered and began to go after her. He looked over his shoulder and called back to the stunned cashiers. "Thanks!" He rushed out through the door. He looked for her, but saw no trace...until a crumpled up piece of pink paper hit him in the head. "Wow...déjà vu." He kneeled down and grasped the paper ball. He unfolded it and read what was still legible. "Consequence...Termination."

He heard a faint sobbing sound off towards a bus stop. He went over to the bench to investigate. Serena lay in a sobbing, shaking heap on the bench. He sat down next to her and gently put his hand on her shoulder. She snapped up, startled by the touch. "Would this be yours?" He held out the pink paper projectile as he removed his hand from her shoulder.

She sniffed a couple of times and looked at the paper. If looks could start fires..."Yeah, that's mine." She said as she took it from him. She clutched it in her fist and put her head in her arms again.

"Are you okay, Serena?"

She met his sapphire gaze. It would figure that a totally handsome guy would start being nice to her when she looked so terrible. She saw nothing but concern and compassion in those gorgeous eyes...'Woah!' she said to herself. 'You just met this guy...you can't go getting lost in his eyes now.'

"Serena?"

"How do you know my name?" she asked as she pulled herself out of his gaze.

"Um," he pointed to her badge with a smile. "Lucky guess."

"Oh," she blushed on top of the flush she already had on her face. "Right. Yeah, I'll be okay."

"Are you sure?" He placed his hand on her shoulder again. "Come on, you can tell me."

"Can I?" she attempted a smile. "I don't even know your name."

"Well, that's easy enough to solve," he replied. Then he realized that using his given name would really confuse her. 'Think Chiba, think! An American name can't be too hard to come up with...' "My name is Darien."

In an evil corner of Time, a lone soldier ran through the darkness towards his leader. "Yukio! Yukio!" The deformed Brute blasted past the other three soldiers in search of their leader.

Yukio was seated and examining something closely as the soldier ran up to him. "What do you want, Yemon? No one can concentrate with that damned yelling!"

Yemon took a breath and paused long enough to give Yukio a respectful bow. "My apologies, sire, but we've got trouble."

Yukio raised an eyebrow as he gave his soldier his full attention. "What kind of trouble?"

Yemon raised his eyes to meet his leader's. "That accursed Senshi of Time is combing the time warp looking for us."

"What?" Yukio leapt out of his chair and went right up to Yemon. "How could she know that we're hiding in here? I thought you said that we were so out of phase with the time warp that no one would ever find us."

"I had no idea that she had this kind of power," Yemon lowered his eyes to avoid his leader's blazing gaze. "There's more, though."

"More?" Yukio's voice began to echo off the time corridor's walls. "More bad news?"

"I'm afraid so, sire." Yemon began to tremble as the other three Brutes began to congregate around the altercation.

"Well…?" the Brute that had her eye skewered by a rose asked. The rose remained in her eye, and the petals had turned a dismal black due to her acrid, evil blood. She put on a cruel smile. "Don't be a wuss, Yemon. Tell us how you've failed."

"Be quiet, Bara," Yemon snapped. "This is no fault of mine."

"Yeah, leave him alone, Bara," another Brute tossed on a casual cocky smile. "He might just go for your good eye!"

"That's a low blow, Kin," Bara retorted as she shook her fist. "At least I'm strong enough to accept my accident! What happened to your arm?"

Kin's smile vanished and a glare replaced it. The rose that Tuxedo Mask had thrown into his arm had gone completely through. Even two days after the accident, the phantom pains continued to plague him.

"A fitting accident for such a brave soldier," he muttered under his breath. Bara huffed and turned her attention back to Yemon. Kin went over to the third Brute who was holding a cybertronic device in his hands. "How's my new arm doing, Toshihiro?" Toshihiro smirked and gestured for Kin to follow him and the two departed the confrontation between Yemon and Yukio.

"I'm growing impatient, Yemon," Yukio said in a hushed, threatening tone. What is this terrible news you have for me?"

Yemon sighed as he raised his eyes to meet Yukio's. "Prince Endymion knows where that girl is."

"What?" Shrieked Bara.

"He and another entered the time warp earlier today and he has been interacting with her for a few hours now."

"Prince Endymion." Yukio had a look on his face like he had eaten something sour as the name rolled off of his tongue. "He should have perished at least a millennium ago."

"But he and those bothersome Sailor Senshi battled our Great Leader not long ago," Bara said. "Did he not die in that encounter as well?"

"I knew that he still existed," Yukio grumbled. "I had just hoped he would have heeded the Senshi of Time and never thought about entering the time warp. He is more foolish than I remembered." A small smile spread across his features. "But that doesn't matter now…not after what we've done to her. Several aspects of the Princess of the Silver Millennium have been altered. She can't even use this powerful crystal." He held up the item that he had been studying so closely: a small, delicate ring inlaid with a small, heart-shaped stone.

"What are you talking abut, Yukio?" Toshihiro asked from his workbench across the room. "I keep telling you…that isn't the Silver Imperium Crystal. I have seen it in action. That little trinket is nothing but a novelty compared to it."

Yukio grimaced, not wanting to be contradicted. "And we're still gonna look for the Imperium Crystal. But the positive energy that I feel from this ring is still quite powerful. This can be used as a medium. And we can use it to channel our powers of negativity and self-doubt into her. I can't wait to see her weakly dissolve into a puddle of self-pity."

"I still don't see why we would want to waste our energy on her," declared Bara as she turned and walked away from Yukio. "Why not use it on our true target?"

"Because I want both of them to suffer," Yukio replied coldly.

"Well, Darien, this is where I live." Serena turned to her walking partner and gave him a smile as they stopped walking. All traces of a previous emotional breakdown had worn off. 'Telling Darien my problem has really helped. I wish I could've met him when I stared this soul-draining job.'

Mamoru looked over the façade of the apartment building. It was in a run-down section of the city, but within walking distance of the supermarket. The building itself was in serious need of a makeover, for paint was peeling off every surface and there was visible rodent and weather damage. "Nice place."

Serena chuckled as she followed his gaze over the front of the building. "Yeah well, you gotta make do sometimes. This is just temporary, you know."

"It is?"

"Yep." Serena nodded proudly. "As soon as I get the money, I'm going to enter the Star Quest talent search and become world-famous!" Her spirits then sank. "Unfortunately, it's gonna be here in a few days, and I needed the rest of this week's pay to afford the entrance fee." She sighed as she went to unlock the door to her apartment. "Oh well, it's just a stupid dream."

Mamoru's heart sank as soon as the sparkle left Serena's eyes. She always had this strange power of contagious happiness. Whenever Usagi was happy, everyone around her was as well. But when her world crashed, everyone around her wanted to do anything to make her happy again. "I don't think it is," he offered. She turned to him with a questioning expression. "In fact, I think it's always best to go for your dreams. What could it hurt?"

"My shred of self esteem, my dignity, and perhaps my reputation?" Serena replied. "My biggest dream is to be recognized and appreciated. I would like for nothing else than to have someone come up to me on the street and tell me that I'm their role model or something. I'd even settle for a compliment every now and then."

"But what if you never try to achieve that dream?" He went up to her and looked her in the eye. "Our dreams are our most precious possessions. Without them, our actions are worthless, and our futures pointless."

Again, Serena found herself locked into Mamoru's soul-penetrating gaze. She saw nothing but sincerity in his words, but they offered little comfort. "What good are dreams that can't come true?"

Mamoru had to laugh at that. "Who ever said that yours can't come true?"

"Well, if I can't get into the talent search, how will I be able to start on my dream?"

"You will," he replied with a mischievous glint in his eye. "I know you will."

"I will," she echoed as if under some kind of hypnosis. Then she snapped to. "Wait, I will? How?"

Mamoru chuckled again as he turned to leave. "Time will tell." He then stopped and slapped himself in the head. 'I'm starting to sound like Sailor Pluto.'

"Darien?"

He paused for a second before he realized that was his "new name", and then turned to face her again. "Yeah?"

"Will, er…" She was suddenly struck by shyness. 'Hey why not…the guy just said go for your dreams…' "Will I ever see you again?"

The hopeful glint in her beautiful eyes caused a large grin to break across Mamoru's features. "You bet! I'll always be looking out for you, Usa…uh, Serena!" She looked at him strangely, noticing the name mistake. 'Baka! Keep the names straight! You are not gonna screw this up now! Now say something that will make her forget that slip…' "Uh, hey, Serena?"

The bizarre expression went away as she looked at him to respond. "Yeah?"

'A compliment now would be a good idea,' a voice inside his head said.

'Hey, keep quiet in there! I'm doing fine on my own!'

'Yeah right, whatever. See if I ever help you again.'

"You really are a great person, Serena," he said with all the sincerity he could muster. "I believe that you can make any dream you have come true."

"Really? You do?"

"Yeah I do." This was going a bit better than he had expected. "Um, so, what do you have planned for tomorrow?"

"Oh, well," Serena looked to the ground in contemplation. "I have to go back to that Hell's mouth supermarket tomorrow. That's about all I have planned."

"Would you like company?" He was beginning to impress himself with his smoothness.

"Well…" 'This has to be a dream…go for it girl, you'll wake up eventually!' "I wouldn't mind your company at all!"

"Great! I'll meet you there." He turned to leave again.

"Wait! How will you know when to be there?" Too bad he was already too far away to hear her. "Terrific," she said aloud to herself. "I've got a psycho following me around." She unlocked her door and opened it. 'Thank God he's an incredibly handsome psycho!'

"Well, how did it go?" Ami asked Mamoru as soon as he had returned to the time corridor from his encounter with Serena. Her eyes darted up to meet his and she sat on the edge of her chair.

"You should know," he replied with a wry grin. "In here you see all and know all, right?"

"See all, maybe," she replied with a giggle. The giggle quickly turned into a sigh as she turned back to her mini computer that rested in her palm. She leaned back into the chair and got comfy again. "Knowing all is a whole different story. Those Brutes are so far out of phase with the time warp that it's really difficult to tell where they are, where they've been, or any of that. Who knows how much damage they've caused the time stream?"

"I wish I understood why they'd go to so much trouble to do this," Mamoru declared as he found a chair to sit in. "It just seems like this whole thing has been planned from the very beginning."

"Maybe it has," Ami replied with a shrug as she continued to type in figures. "But then again, just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

"You're not helping any."

"Gomen ne." A small smile curled her lips as her computer made a positive beeping sound. "Got it!"

"What did you get?" He craned his neck to see what Ami had done on her computer.

"We now have an early-warning system," she replied with pride.

"I have a fix on Serena, and if any of those Brutes get anywhere within a thousand feet of her, we'll know about it.

"Ingenious, Mercury." A voice came from the shadows. "And from what I've found, we'll be needing that."

"Setsuna-san!" Ami yelped. "Sheesh, you don't have to keep sneaking around like that!"

Mamoru stood and faced Sailor Pluto seriously. "What have you found?"

"Some very nervous Brutes," she replied with a smile. "They're not as clever as they thought they were. I found them and was able to move them further in sync with the time warp."

"How did you do that?" asked Ami as she began to type feverishly on her computer.

Pluto snickered as she waved her long time staff in a slow circle. "Bibbity bobbity boo. You guys can't know every taboo here. I have to have some secrets!"

"YES!" Ami said as she leaped out of her chair. "I have a definite lock on their position. If they go anywhere, we have them!"

"This is too easy…" Mamoru mused. "They have to have a backup plan."

"Even if they do, we can find out more about them," Ami tried to save the positive mood. "Have you found out anything, Setsuna-san?"

"Indeed," she said as her smile faded. "This is going to take some explaining. This will come as a shock to you, Prince, but they're really after you."