Hey people! Sorry I didn't get this chapter up as fast as I would have liked. My life seems to be school, work, school, .( Anyway, in this chapter I actually let you see where things are going. Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, or it's characters. I own the two characters Lara and Sol.

Keeping Secrets

In a dark corner somewhere a voice finishes a story. "So that's what he said. I don't know if you believe him, but it seems that we should check it out. Don't you?"

A feminine voice replies, "Yes. He may not realize it right now but he is playing the fool. This girl has him bewitched. We owe it to him to find out the truth. So we should take turns observing him and the girl to see if what he says is the truth, or just something he wants to believe and wants us to believe as well."

The first voice speaks again, "All right, I'll start by watching her. You watch him, but try to keep it casual. If I find out anything I'll let you know."

The owners of the two voices fade into the night, moving toward their respective targets.

* * * "Hey, that was weird! I wonder what caused the blackout? Oh, well, I guess it wasn't anything too important or the lights would still be off." Mina looked toward Lara for confirmation.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. We should probably be going to sleep now anyway. I can't wait to see what you're studying to go to university next year. I guess I'll see in your study buddies session tomorrow. Well good- night Mina." Mina left the room and Lara started to get ready for bed. While Lara was getting ready for bed she thought she saw a shadow pass across the window behind her in the mirror.

Lara cautiously moved toward the window and looked outside. There was nothing there except the night darkened street and a dog going into the house across the street.

"I guess I'm just tired, eh Sol. There's nothing out there except my imagination. I should get some sleep before I start thinking I see a princess walking on the moon or something. Good-night Sol, have a good sleep." With that Lara climbed into bed and Sol jumped up on the end of the bed and they both fell asleep.

* * *

She was walking in a beautiful garden filled with starflowers. It was pleasantly warm in the garden. She looked up at the golden sky and sighed. It was a very important day for her family; her older sister was getting formally betrothed to her true love, the prince of the Earth. She could hardly believe it was happening. She would be going to the moon to congratulate her sister on her future happiness. Too bad her brother couldn't come too, but he was crown prince, and if anything happened then the Sun would have no heir to the throne and there could be civil war. Oh, well, her sister would be coming to visit the Sun with the prince soon anyway and they had all met the prince before when they visited the Earth on one of her father's rounds of the kingdom. The prince seemed like a very nice person to her and she could understand why her sister loved him, even if he was too old for her. She was just about to leave her room, when the door opened and her advisor walked in. Solar told her to hurry up or she would miss the Ark and the princess of Venus would leave without her. She didn't believe Solar, but the threat had been made and she didn't want to risk missing a chance to see her sister. She hurried through the corridors to where the Ark was waiting and boarded the space faring "boat". As the Ark lifted off and she got her last glimpse of her home she thought how beautiful it was and how much she wished her true love would come for her soon.

* * *

Lara woke up at 7:00 in the morning and shook the last bit of sleep out of her head. Her dreams had been strange, but she couldn't remember much more of them than that they had been strange. Since she couldn't remember the dreams she decided to forget about them altogether. Lara got up and got dressed for the new day ahead and woke up Sol so she could take him down for breakfast. When she came down the stairs to the kitchen. Mina's parents were already up and reading the newspaper while eating their breakfast. The door to the fridge was open and Mina stuck her head out around the door.

"Hey, Lara. I already put some food down for Artemis and Sol over by the sink. Would you like some cereal or something for breakfast? I'm just going to have some cereal myself." Mina came out from behind the fridge door and brought over some cereal. Lara and Mina each ate some cereal and got ready to go to Rei's house for Mina's study buddies session.

As Mina told Lara, it wasn't really "study" buddies any more because they were getting ready to go to university, so there wasn't really any reason to "study". But all of the girls had agreed that they should help each other stay ready for the coming year. They arrived at Rei's temple at about 8:15, about the same time as the other girls except for Serena of course.

"Where's Serena?" Lara asked with a puzzled expression on her face. "I thought you were all in this together."

"If we waited for Serena to get here we would never get anything done in this group. She'll show up as soon as Luna can get her here." Rei was so caught up in her tirade that she didn't realize what she was saying.

"Luna must be a very smart cat to get her owner up when she's late, or is it maybe because Luna wants to be fed?" Lara looked fondly down on her cat who was sitting at her feet. Artemis was also sitting near Lara, looking at her.

Rei suddenly realized what she had said and whom she was talking to. "Yeah, Luna's a really smart cat. She'll make sure Serena gets up if she has to use tooth and claws to do it!"

At that moment Serena ran up the steps and collapsed at the top. Luna came running behind her. "Hey Rei, can I talk to you for a minute, it's kind of urgent." Serena gasped out as soon as she was able to.

"Sure Serena. If it's so important that you actually ran up the stairs to tell me, then it's got to be important!"

Rei and Serena disappeared into the temple leaving the others to show Lara around the temple grounds.

* * *

"Rei, we have a problem. You know those dream snatchers that Mina was dating? Well I think I saw that red head walking around, following some girls around the park. I think we should check it out. And Luna agrees with me. In fact she's the one who saw the red head in the first place." Serena sounded serious, which was strange for her, and she looked a little scared, which was all too natural for her.

"It's true Rei." Rei looked down at Luna. "That dream snatcher looks like he's going to strike again as soon as he can get his target alone. We need to get the scouts over there right away."

Rei looked like she was going to go right at that very moment, but then she remembered. "What about Lara? She's going to wonder where we're going. What do we do with her?"

* * *

Serena and Rei reappeared just as Amy finished re-explaining how to do a particularly difficult math problem to Lita. "Oh, I get it now! It's just like what my old boyfriend used to study! Thanks Amy!"

"Hey, guys. What's up, Serena?" Amy asked when she looked up from the book and saw them coming toward the rest of the group.

Rei just gave Amy a speaking look and Amy understood right away. Then Rei turned to Lara. "Lara, we have something to take care of. Why don't we meet you a little later?"

"All right. But do you mind if I walk part way with you to the park? I'd really like to look at the gardens since I didn't see them yesterday." The girls agreed and they set off. They left Lara at the gardens planning to meet up again some time that afternoon.

Serena looked back at Lara as she disappeared into the park. "I hope that Lara will be okay. But right now we have to save those girls!" They all nodded and ran out of Lara's line of sight, then turned into the park near where Luna and Serena had spotted the red headed dream snatcher.

Unnoticed by the girls running toward a danger, a similar danger watched from the shadows. "Lara, hmm?"

* * *

"So where did you say you saw this guy? I don't see him anywhere!" Lita asked, looking around. "Do you think that maybe we missed him? That would be horrible!"

At that moment they heard a despairing scream from one of the alleys off of the main street. They all looked at each other and ran for the source of the scream. They looked around the corner and saw the "red head" delving into his victim's dreams.

"We had better transform scouts!" Serena said, low enough that their enemy wouldn't hear her.

After they transformed the scouts jumped in and confronted the dream snatcher. Or, they attempted to confront him. Just as Serena was about to start her tirade, the dream snatcher turned around and looked straight at them, then sighed in barely concealed irritation.

"I know, I know. You're Sailor Moon, and you're the champion of justice and other such nonsense. And those are the Sailor Scouts, and they stand for all the same things. You say the same things every time. You'd think you never said the speech before! But anyway, I don't have time for you today. This isn't the person we're looking for, so I'm going. See ya!" And with that he went through his gateway and disappeared.

"Well, that was strange! I wonder why he didn't try to kill us? Every other time they've tried to kill us. Oh, well, I guess we should just count this as a blessing. I really didn't feel like fighting today." Serena said.

Rei just looked at her for a minute. "Serena, you never want to fight."

* * *

After the other girls left, Lara entered the gardens. The flowers there were very soothing in sight and scent. As she walked through the flowers she realized that she was looking for something. She didn't know what, but it seemed unnatural that she couldn't find whatever she was looking for. Then Lara got a glimpse of something that caught her attention. It was a beautiful orange-gold flower with a soft yellow center shaped almost like a rose. That flower reminded Lara of something that had been in her dream the night before. That wasn't so strange. It had been quite some time since she'd had a prophetic dream, but Lara had them often enough that this sort of thing was no longer disturbing.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" A voice said behind her.

Lara whirled around to find Darien behind her. "You scared me! Are you always that quiet, or just when you want to sneak up on people?"

Darien laughed. "Only when I want to sneak up on people. I'm sorry that I scared you. You must have been very concentrated on your thoughts. I can understand that given the flower you were looking at though. I remember how I felt when I first saw the starflower, I felt like I had just discovered something that I had never realized I was missing."

Lara just stared at him. It wasn't just because of what he was saying, she felt like she should know Darien for some reason. "Darien, this is going to sound really strange but, do you remember things that you've never done? Things that might have happened in a previous life?"

Darien gave her a startled look. "What makes you ask that?"

Lara blushed and looked away. Of course he didn't, if he did remember something from another life, he wouldn't be looking at her like she was crazy. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. So this flower is called a starflower? Why is it called that?"

So they talked about the starflower for a little while, then Darien accompanied Lara on a tour of the gardens, describing the flowers and their stories as they went. After a while Darien said good-bye, since he had to get home, and told Lara that he hoped to see her again some time.

After Darien left, Lara decided to go for a walk in the woods for a little while. She neither saw nor heard the person following her into the shadows of the trees.

* * *

Tiger's Eye was pacing in his room, trying to decide what to do about Lara. He was almost certain that Lara wasn't the one who carried Pegasus in her dreams, but he wanted to see her again and he couldn't understand why. He understood that humans found him and his two companions irresistible, but he had always thought that this was just because they were humans, meaning weak. Now, Tiger's Eye thought that maybe he had a little bit of an understanding as to how these human girls felt around him. When he thought about Lara, he felt confused and off balance, like the world had suddenly tilted on it's side and he was desperately trying to hold on to something stable to keep him from falling off. Tiger's Eye glanced at the picture still sitting on the table beside his bed. What was he going to do? What he really should be doing was choosing a new target and trying to find Pegasus. Suddenly Tiger's Eye felt very tired; he just couldn't seem to get himself into the mood to go after another target since meeting Lara. Then he got an idea that would combine both of the objectives that he wanted to achieve. Tiger's Eye got changed, opened his portal, and left to fulfill his plan.

* * *

Lara was walking through the woods, listening to the song of the birds around her. Something odd was going on though. She felt as if she should be somewhere, doing something, but she didn't know what. Lara clutched the star pendant she liked to wear, it always seemed to comfort her for some reason, and it reminded her of something from the past. She was walking under a cherry tree when she felt something furry brush by her leg. Lara looked down to see the beautiful cat that she had first met outside the ice cream shop.

"Well how are you kitty? Do you have a name?" Lara got down on her haunches to be closer to the cat. "Strange, you seem to have a marking similar to my cat Sol's. You certainly are beautiful, but I doubt Mina's family would take kindly to having another cat around, especially a cat that doesn't belong to any of us. But you can walk with me for now."

"Would you mind if I walk with you too?"

Lara turned toward the voice, a smile appearing on her face. "Tiger! What are you doing here?"

"I told you not to be surprised to see me when I next met you. I was just admiring the beauty of the trees when I turned a corner around some trees and saw you walking in this direction. I thought that maybe you might like someone to walk with, of course if you want to be by yourself then just say so and I'll take off." Tiger said looking very sincere and sounding like he would do exactly as she said, but that he would be very hurt if Lara asked him to leave.

Asking Tiger to leave was probably the last thing on Lara's mind at the moment though, so Tiger might as well not have worried. "I'd love to walk with you Tiger. I don't know why, but it feels like you belong in a forest, maybe it's just that you're dressed for walking in the forest this time. Or maybe it's because the forest is the only place that I ever meet you."

It was true that Tiger was dressed for the forest this time. He was wearing a pair of jeans that looked worn and comfortable. His shirt was a sensible T-shirt that wouldn't tear if it got caught on a branch. He had on running shoes that he could walk, or hike, for a while in. In other words, he looked great, in an extremely relaxed way.

"Well, to tell you the truth, big groups of strange people make me nervous. I don't like to just walk up to a group where I only know one or two other people, especially when the group is as big as the group you and your friends are in." Tiger looked down at Lara and smiled crookedly, as if he were telling her a secret about himself that he didn't want anyone to know.

"That's fairly normal, I would think. I know I get really nervous around people I don't know. I guess I got lucky that by the time I actually met Serena and Mina and the other girls that I already felt that I knew them to a certain extent because Greg told me all about them before I came to Japan." Lara was looking off into the middle distance in front of them, so she didn't see the look on Tiger's face when she said that she hadn't always lived in Japan.

"You say 'when you came to Japan'. What do you mean? You sound like you've spoken Japanese your entire life."

Lara looked up at Tiger, surprised. "Thank you for the compliment. I'm sorry, but for a minute I forgot that I wasn't alone. No, I haven't lived in Japan my entire life in fact I've only been here for a day. I just arrived in Japan yesterday, although it seems like it's been longer. So, have you found anyone who dreams of Pegasus yet?"

Tiger looked down at Lara, expecting to see her laughing at him or at least making fun of him. But she looked serious, like she really believed in what she was asking him. "No, I haven't found anyone who dreams of Pegasus, although to tell the truth, I haven't been looking. Have you had any of your dreams about mythical creatures?" Tiger hadn't really thought that Lara would say yes, he had just been joking, but Lara was nodding.

"I guess you could say I have. It wasn't my normal kind of dream though. It was more like a memory from a long time ago rather than a dream. I was somewhere really warm and there was something important happening, but I don't know what. I only know that it's important because I'm excited about it. I think I'm about fifteen, but nothing like this happened to me when I was fifteen, and anyway it doesn't feel like Earth. I know that sounds crazy, but that's how it seems. You probably think I'm really strange and never want to see me again, and that's okay. I'm kind of used to that reaction to some of the things I say sometimes without thinking."

Lara had stopped walking and was looking at the ground. Tiger, who had walked a few more steps before he realized that Lara had stopped, turned around and came back to stand with her. When she wouldn't look up at him Tiger gently but his fingers under her chin and raised her face to look at him. There were barely suppressed tears in her eyes that made them sparkle and shimmer as the sunlight came through the leaves of the trees.

"I would never think your crazy just because you have dreams, come on I'm the one asking people if they see a winged unicorn in their dreams for heaven's sake."

At that moment Lara heard Serena's voice coming from somewhere very close by. Lara was about to call out to Serena to let her know where she was when Lara heard other voices. Lara looked over at Tiger and was surprised to see the look on his face. He looked stunned, and not in a good way. It almost looked like he was scared of something, but why would he be scared of Serena and her friends? Oh, yeah. He said he was nervous around big groups, didn't he? Lara thought.

"Don't worry Tiger, they'll think you're great just like I do." Lara said quietly so she wouldn't embarrass him. He just looked at her with an expression that made her think that someone had come along when she wasn't looking and hit him in the back of the head with something hard and flat. (AN: If you've ever read any of the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey, then you know to what I am referring.)

Just before Lara was going to jump out and surprise her friends, she finally heard what they were saying.

"I wonder why that guy didn't stay to fight? It just doesn't seem right. They always at least leave a youma for us to fight that is supposed to kill us. What's up with this new hit and run tactic?" This sounded like Lita, and when Lara caught a glimpse of the speaker, she looked kind of like Lita too. Only this girl was in what looked kind of like a sailor suit only it was a body suit and really short skirt, which looked even shorter because the girl was so tall. When Lara got a look at the other speakers they were all dressed in a similar fashion, only their outfits were different colours. What was really strange was that not only did these girls sound like Serena and her friends, they looked very much like them too.

Lara decided to stay hidden and listen, she knew that that was probably wrong, but she had to find out the secret behind these girls, and she was pretty sure that she wouldn't find out by asking them.

"I guess that they've decided that it's not worth it to stick around and fight us or waste their youmas against us. Although, you are right about this time being really strange. He didn't even try to kill that girl. Why do you think that was?" The girl who looked like Rei looked at the other girls, maybe hoping for an answer.

The girl who looked like Amy gave that answer, although it wasn't very helpful. "I guess we'll just have to find out when we see another one of them."

Lara was extremely confused by now. What were they talking about? Lara felt something large move up beside her and almost screamed before she realized that it was only Tiger. For a minute she had forgotten he was there. As he got close enough to see through the trees to the girls in the sailor suits he stiffened. Lara looked over at him. If Tiger were a cat for real his fur would have been standing on end and he would have been hissing and spitting.

"Tiger, do you know who those girls are?" Lara asked, figuring by his reaction that he must at least know something about them.

"I don't really know them, but I know who they are. They're called the Sailor Scouts. They're leader is that blond one over there with her hair up in odongos." He pointed to Sailor Moon. "These aren't all of them either from what I've heard, but these five and a younger one with pink hair done up in odongos are the only ones I've ever seen."

Lara was stunned. That last one sounded like Renee, I mean how many little girls with pink hair done up in odongos could there be in Tokyo? This was really weird! Then something else occurred to her. "I've heard of the Sailor Scouts, and from what I've heard they're the protectors of this city, so why do you dislike them so much?"

Tiger looked stunned for the third time in the last few minutes. "What makes you think that I dislike them?"

Lara just gave him a look that told him she knew he was lying.

"All right, it's just that they are so annoying. They always pop up at the wrong time. Whenever I think I'm close to finding Pegasus, they're always there trying to get rid of me." Tiger suddenly remembered whom he was talking to and that those "annoying" Sailor Scouts were close enough for him to spit on if he really tried. He also realized that his voice had been steadily growing louder as he spoke. Fortunately, the Scouts were too caught up in their own conversation to notice more than the fact that someone was speaking, probably far away, and Lara took his explanation in stride just like she had with everything else he had said from the time she met him.

The Sailor Scouts were moving further away from where Lara and Tiger were crouching. Lara got up and Tiger followed. They started to walk in silence, not a tense silence, just a silence that happens between people when they don't need to say something to understand what the other person is thinking and just exist. After a little while Tiger said that he needed to leave and that he would see her soon. Lara was sad to see him leave. But happy because she wanted to talk to Serena and the rest of her friends about the Sailor Scouts.

As Lara left the forest and began walking towards the Hikawa Shrine (or Rei's temple), a shadow separated itself from the shadows beneath the trees.

* * *

So, what do you think? Do you like how the story is progressing? Let me give you a preview of the next chapter, just in case it takes me a long time for me to get the next chapter out too.

* * * Preview of chapter 5:

"So, where is she? I thought you knew where she was?" The first voice sounded feminine, although it was low enough that it easily could have been a male.

"I never said I knew where she was. I just thought that she would probably be close to the Princess, who we know never strays far from the Prince, and in case you have forgotten, we do know where the Prince is." This was said haughtily by a masculine voice. The short blond hair of the speaker flashed in a stray ray of light.

"Yes. We know where the Prince is. How could we not, but how can you be so sure that she will be close to the Princess. Remember they didn't even know who the Princess was when we were last here." Another unmistakably male voice said. This was from the last of the three. He was taller than the other two and seemed to think about what he was saying more carefully than the others.

A fourth figure emerged through the gate of time and space. "I have found her. She is going to need protecting immediately."