5 – Alexia, Outer Moon Princess Charon.

"Good morning Rei!" Alexia grinned as she breezed into the classroom. Rei was stood at the window, looking out with a look of deep thought on her face. "Rei? Hey Rei!" she tapped her friend on the shoulder and she jumped rather violently.

"Oh, Alexia." she breathed a sigh of relief as she placed her hand to her chest. "You startled me." the green-haired giggled. "You're in a good mood today."

"I had a great night last night, oh it was so much fun!" she sat on her desk, the grin so wide it looked as if her cheeks might explode at any moment.

"What did you do?" Rei asked distantly, going back to staring out of the window.

"Well I…Rei are you feeling alright? It's like you're on another planet or something!" the girl looked at her with concern.

"Oh, um, just thinking about that test we have this afternoon - I think it's really bad that you've still gotta do it even though you've only been here a day!" Rei lied. The thing really on her mind was the fact that she'd received a message from Estrella that morning…

…"Hello Rei."

The psychic girl had just started to walk down the stairs when the voice had greeted her. She looked up, to notice the orange kitten perched on the hand rest of the steps, her tail twitching slightly.

"Estrella?" she asked, making sure she had got the right name, and the cat nodded.

"That's right. I just wanted to let you know, myself and Charon will be arriving here at promptly 5pm. Make sure you and the others are assembled at that time please." Estrella stood up. "Now, have a nice day at school." at that, she leapt off the hand rest and stalked away…

She was excited about the prospect of discovering who the mysterious new Scout was, and where she had been. Suddenly she noticed that Alexia was peering at her intently.

"Uh, did you say something?" she asked, Alexia rolled her eyes.

"I said, we got some good news last night - my mom's got a job!"

"Oh really? That's great." Rei smiled.

"Yeah, it's a school head librarian job, and guess which school it's at?"

"Which?"

"Crossroads Junior High!"

"Really? Wow so she might see Serena, Amy and Lita around? Okay so she'll probably see LOTS of Amy, a little of Lita and not much of Serena unless she wants a quick nap…" the black-haired girl muttered, Alexia laughed.

"You do make me laugh Rei, I've only known you since yesterday and already I know you're one of my best friends…" she paused. "That's if you want to be my best friend?" she looked hopefully at her, and Rei smiled.

"Yes, I do, Alexia." she took the girl's hand in hers. "I think that would be great." Especially as I still feel I've known you a lifetime, not a day.

x x x x x

"I'm so excited about this afternoon!" Serena sang between mouthfuls of food at lunch time. Amy and Lita looked at one another and smiled.

"It should be interesting." the blue-haired Scout said simply.

"Interesting? Amy we're getting a brand new team-mate! And a new cat!" Serena cried out.

"Team-mate? What are you talking about Serena you don't even like sports!" Melvin suddenly appeared from inside a bush behind the three girls.

"Melvin, have you been spying on us?" Lita growled, standing up and using her height advantage to make the geeky boy cower.

"Uhhh no, I was merely observing this…um…bush! Yes this bush is covered with insects that I'm looking at for my biology project!" he exclaimed, flustered. "Anyway now I need to go check that tree…yes that's right! Bye girls!" he rushed off, and the Scouts sweatdropped.

"That boy, he's more trouble than he's worth." Lita grumbled as she picked up her lunch back up.

"Oooh Litaaa…those rice balls look super delicious today!" Serena hinted, her eyes bulging. The brunette sighed, rolled her eyes, and handed the lunchbox over.

"Here, I've lost my appetite." she muttered as Serena squealed with delight as she tucked in. "So, any ideas who our new girl could be?"

"Well, I have my theory, but I'm going to keep my mouth closed unless it's proven correct." Amy smiled. "It's just a hypothesis."

"A hypo-what?" Serena spluttered, rice flirting out of her full mouth.

"Serena, it's rude to speak with your mouth full." Amy pointed out. "I just mean that I have an supposition however it is inconclusive."

"Whaaat?" Serena looked totally bewildered.

"Never mind Serena…hey isn't that Alexia's mother there?" Amy pointed to a raven-haired woman walking towards them with a pile of books in her arms.

"Well hello there girls!" Miaka beamed as they stood to greet her. "Isn't it a lovely day?"

"Yes, it is." they agreed in unison.

"Um, what are you doing here? This isn't Alexia's school!" Serena asked.

"I know it isn't - I'm the school's new head librarian!" she announced.

"Oh, congratulations!" the girls complimented

"Thanks girls." Miaka managed successfully to look over the pile of books at a card in her hand. "Now, would I be right in assuming that you are Amy Anderson?" Amy nodded. "Great! I have some books here that you ordered?"

"Oh really? Wonderful!" she exclaimed, joyfully clapping her hands together.

"Yes, here's 'Astronomy for the Advanced' and…ummm…'Further Trigonometry part 5'. My goodness, what big books these are!"

"Thank you ever so much Miaka." Amy smiled, taking the books from her.

"No problem honey, it's my job." the woman smiled fondly at the three. She felt quite attached to them already. "You girls are wonderful, thank you so much for helping Alexia feel so welcome."

"It's no problem, she's so cool." Lita grinned.

"Anyway, I have to find homes for all of these yet! See you all soon I hope!" the woman waltzed off, books in tow.

"She's so nice!" Serena exclaimed.

"I agree." Amy smiled, and Lita nodded as well.

x x x x x

The Sailor Scouts worked their way through school with impatience that day, counting every single minute on the clock until finally the final bell rang at the 3 different schools. Alexia was just walking through her front gate when Mina called to her from up the street.

"Hi Alexia! Did you have a nice day at school?" the blonde asked gaily as she caught her up.

"Yes thanks, although Rei's seemed really reserved today." Alexia replied rather anxiously. "I'm kinda worried about her, it was like she was in some sort of daze…" she shook her head.

"I'm sure it's nothing, really." Mina smiled, placing a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "I hope you've not got too much homework?"

"Not really no, I've got to go out later so it's a good job." she smiled.

"Oh really, where are you going?" Mina asked with interest.

"Umm…I'm not sure yet, my parents won't tell me - it's a secret apparently." the green-haired Scout turned to face the house. "I'll see you around Mina."

"Yup, you too." the girls walked down their paths and inside. As soon as Mina got in Artemis pounced on her.

"I've got news - Estrella's been in touch. We have to be at the temple for 5 o'clock sharp."

"Right, do the others know?" she asked.

"Well Estrella said that she'd get in touch with Luna and she'd already seen Rei."

Meanwhile next door Estrella had been waiting for Alexia.

"Five o'clock on the nose at Rei's temple." she informed the Charonian.

"Okay." she picked up the kitten. "I'm really, really excited!"

"So am I, so am I." Estrella agreed, purring.

x x x x x

Rei gazed deeply into the orange and red flames and sighed. She looked up at the clock -

4.55pm.

Looking around to check she was alone she slipped her hand into her sleeve and pulled out something.

A long strand of green hair.

She wrapped the silken strand around her fingers and looked at it for a moment. She'd somehow managed to retrieve the hair from Sailor Charon the night before and now the curiosity was getting the better of her.

Looking back at the flames, then closing her eyes she murmured. "Holy fire - show me, show me the true identity of Sailor Charon…" after counting down from five in her head she opened her eyes. Dancing in the flames was a graceful female figure in a long lilac dress with a high neck and a slit up to her knee on one side of the skirt. Wrapped around her waist was a pink sash and her waist-length green hair flowed freely around her. She stopped - and stared back at Rei with pale blue eyes. Her features were delicate and beautiful and on her forehead shone a symbol consisting of a silver crescent moon and purple heart. Her lips slowly curled into a radiant smile and she whispered quietly.

"But you know who I am, Mars. You'll never forget me…" the figure faded, yet Rei continued to stare.

"But that made no sense to me…I have forgotten you, haven't I?" she said sadly.

"Rei, are you alright?" Serena said softly from the doorway. Rei turned to look at her and Darien.

"Of course I am, why shouldn't I be?" she said sharply, getting to her feet. The other girls were sat around outside.

"Only two minutes to go…" Amy breathed, looking at her watch.

"I can't bear the suspense!" Mina exclaimed loudly.

"Me neither!!" Serena groaned. "I wanna go for ice cream too!"

"One minute." Amy murmured.

"Agh sixty seconds of pure agony!" Lita slammed her fist against a post.

"Thirty…"

"Hey guys, what's up?"

The Scouts' heads turned all at once to stare at Alexia.

"Alexia? What are you doing here?" Rei asked her in amazement.

"Well I just thought I'd drop by and say hello, oh and introduce you to my kitten!" Alexia grinned.

Twenty… Amy thought.

"Although there's been a slight problem with the name thing…"

"Oh yeah?" Mina tilted her head.

Ten…

"Yeah, we decided the name Marmalade just wasn't right, so we changed it,"

Five…

"Isn't that right…Estrella?"

"That's right, Alexia." the kitten walked out from behind the girl.

One! Amy couldn't help but smile as she realised the obvious.

"And as it's now 5 on the dot - let me introduce you girls to the one and only Sailor Charon!" Estrella smiled proudly up at Alexia, who blushed.

"Alexia?!" Mina remarked in disbelief.

"Alexia!" Serena squealed, and leapt up to hug the girl. "I can't believe it's you!"

"I couldn't believe it either, but it's true!" Alexia laughed.

"I knew it was you." Amy got to her feet.

"You did, how?" Lita inquired.

"It was simple - the dream, the way Luna and Artemis reacted to her, all of her interests match those of Princess Charon's…" she took Alexia's hands in her own. "Welcome to the group." she said sweetly.

"Thank you. It's nice to be here." Alexia replied.