"Happy Birthday, Candra!" Confetti rained down on Candra as she walked through the front door of her apartment. "Lord Kami-sama! Minna!" she screamed. She kicked a path through the balloons on the floor, then put her grocery bags on the recliner so she could give Mako a hug. "Who told?"
"Let's just say that after her party, Usagi-chan wanted to return the favor," answered Mako.
Candra let go of her brown-haired friend as Usagi kicked her own path through the balloons. "Serenity! Thank you!" Candra leaned over to give Usagi a hug. "This is so cool!"
Her brothers walked in with the rest of the groceries. "Whoa," commented Jim.
"If I woulda know there was gonna be a party when we got back, I woulda worn a better T-shirt," added Ozzie.
"Alright! Party!" yelled Lance.
"Great," Greg uttered. "Look at this untidiness. And we just cleaned the house."
"Don't worry." Setsuna took the bags from Greg. "We have a vacuum and duster in reserve."
"We also have cake!" said Rei as she and Michiru brought the cake into the living room.
"Not in the living room!" stated Greg.
"House rule, minna," Candra explained. "Edibles may only be consumed in the kitchen."
"Huh?" asked Usagi.
"Food in kitchen only," Candra translated.
"Oh."
Something exploded. Everyone jumped. "What was that?" asked Usagi.
ChibiUsa blushed. "Gomen," she said as she pulled a piece of balloon out of her hair.
After that, everyone piled into the kitchen. Minako and Michiru helped the guys put away the groceries while Mako cut the cake and Rei handed out the ice cream. "You know, Candra-chan. I believe I have given you three pieces, and you still don't have one in front of you," commented Mako. "Are you inhaling them and hiding the plates?"
"No," replied Candra. "I decided to let the little ones have their pieces first." She pointed to ChibiUsa and Hotaru.
"But that's only two pieces," said Minako as she closed the refrigerator door.
"Yeah, what happened to the third?" asked Rei.
Candra rested her chin on her hand and her elbow on the table. "That one went to her." She pointed her thumb at Usagi, who was sitting to her right, frosting all over her face.
"Usagi! Honesty!" said Michiru.
"What? I wanted cake," Usagi insisted.
Everyone sighed. "Here. I'll cut you another one," Mako told Candra.
Ding-dong! "I'll get it," said Lance.
"You know," said Candra as she stuck her fork into her cake, "I have never had this many people at a birthday party. It's always been just the five of us," she said, meaning her brothers and herself.
"Even when you were touring?" asked Michiru. She took a piece of cake from Mako. "Arigato."
"Too many would be at the party. I wouldn't show up." Candra put a forkful of cake in her mouth, then covered her mouth as she continued. "The record company would plan these big things with two, three hundred people, most of whom I don't even know. I cannot stand big crowds unless I am on stage. Hey, Chiba-san!"
"Hello, everyone," said Mamoru. He handed an envelope to Candra. "Sorry I'm late. They would not let me leave work today."
"Want some cake?" Mako asked as she cut a piece for Rei.
"Of course. I may be overworked, but I'm not dead." He leaned over and kissed Usagi on the cheek. "So we're telling them tonight?"
"Telling who what?" asked Hotaru.
"They still haven't told Usagi's parents about the engagement ring," said ChibiUsa.
"You have had that thing for five days and they still don't know?" asked Minako.
"Iie. They haven't looked at my hand close enough, I guess," Usagi answered.
Haruka shook her hand and smiled. "You are so strange, Odango."

Mako came out of the bathroom wearing a light green nightgown, rubbing a towel on her head to dry her hair. "Thanks for letting me spend the night, Candra-chan," she said.
"Hey, no problem. You need your apartment fixed and I need a bodyguard. It all works out in the end." Candra smiled. "So, you honestly don't remember anything?"
"No," Mako replied. "I just remember watching TV and it being dark outside." As Mako searched her bag for her hairbrush, she asked Candra, "Candra-chan? What exactly is your relationship with Sir Grety? I mean, I know it's not a good one, but how did you two meet? How long have you been fighting? That sort of thing."
Candra sighed as if she were remembering a found memory. "Well, about two weeks after I first henshioned, a friend of mine and I were on our way to school.. . ."

"You didn't remember the report?" Candra stopped walking and turned to her friend with wide, panic-stricken eyes.
Her friend gulped. "Just my part," she squeaked out.
"Which was only the more important part." Candra closed her eyes and slowly counted to ten. When she opened them, her friend had backed away just a bit. "You aren't mad, are you?"
Candra took a deep breath. "No. FURIOUS is the word!" It took all she could not to kill her friend. "I have had straight A's ever since kindergarten and if this ruins it. . .! What happened? Why didn't you do it?"
"Ricky and I did a few things on Saturday."
Candra raised her eyebrows. "Tina, that's nasty."
"We couldn't help it."
"Yes, you could have." Candra started walking again.
Tina jogged to catch up with her. "So, what am I going to do? I'll fail if we don't do well."
You should have thought about that in the first place, Candra thought. Out loud, she said, "Just let me do the talking." She pulled a floppy disk out of her purse.

". . .then my printer wouldn't work and by that point, the computer store was closed. So, then we were going to use the computers here, but none of them have the program she used."
The teacher raised an eyebrow. "So, basically, you aren't ready to go today."
Candra nodded. "That sounds about right. We are going to work more on my printer this afternoon."
"Why didn't you last night?"
"Uh, well, we had spent three hours making sure we had everything accurate and by the time the printer went on the fritz, it was midnight. . .and we didn't want to fall asleep for the other presentations." Candra flashed her Please-Believe-Me smile.
The teacher smiled. "Well, Candra, since you are excellent at turning homework in on time, I believe you. But I want it by tomorrow and if there is not enough time in class, you are going to have to do it after school."
Candra and Tina quietly breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Ms. Carter."
Tina bought lunch for Candra. "It's the least I could do; you really got me out of a jam there."
"Well, I was bailing myself out as well."
They sat in a booth. "So, what time do you want to come over after school?" asked Tina.
Candra placed her napkin on her lap. "What do you mean?"
"So you can help me finish," Tina replied.
The fork's trip to the beef stew suddenly halted as Candra gave Tina a You-Have-Got-to-Be-Kidding look. "I'm not gonna help you. You wanted to do this part!"
"I know, but. . ."
"Tina, you begged me to let you do it. It is your responsibility to complete it yourself. Besides, I have track after school, then my flute lesson, followed by softball practice. Then I have to study for my German test and Algebra 2 quiz. I might be done by one in the morning." Candra started to eat.
Tina huffed. "See if I ever work with you again."
"I don't really care. We had three weeks to work on an eight to ten minute presentation. I got my part done within the first week, then offered to help you. You told me you had it all under control." They finished lunch in stony silence.

"I hated to do that, but it is her fault," said Candra as she and the team warmed up for the track meet.
"She did something similar to me, expect she was trying to get me to help her the night before," one of her teammates said. "However, I had done enough on my own, so even though she didn't get finished, I still got a 93 on it."
"Alrighty, ladies!" yelled their coach. "You know that the Panthers are undefeated this season. But I know we can take them on. I have the confidence that we will hand them their first loss!"
"Let's begin!" called out the announcer. "Welcome to Central High School! We have the Bears vs. the Panthers!" At the mention of the Panthers' name, the crowd started to boo. "Geez. They don't have to be so rude about it," said another teammate.
"Why do they always boo the other team?" asked Candra. "Their fans never do that to us."
"I don't know, but I find it very annoying even though it's in our fav," said the first teammate.
Many races later, Candra found herself at the starting lane for the 200-meter. The Panthers had three racers while the Bears had only two: Candra and the new girl, Haruka. "Are you nervous, Haruka-san?" Candra fumbled through her then limited Japanese.
"No." Haruka was snobbish and full of herself to everyone, but Candra still took it hard when Haruka was curt towards her. Still, Candra put on a smile. "Well, good luck, then." She stuck out her hand. Haruka looked at it for a few seconds, then shook hands with her.
"Racers, ready? Set!" The gun fired and the race began. Haruka took a quick lead and pulled away from the pack before the other girls even had a chance to start. Wow! Candra thought. I had knew she was fast, but I have never seen her like this!
Haruka won with a time of 24.1 seconds; Candra was in second with 29.0 and a Panther had 29.9 for third place.
"Congrats!" called out a third teammate.
"Thanks!" said Candra. "You, too, Jamie. First in the 800. You have been trying to get that for a year."
"I know. Too bad about that girl stealing your first," Jamie commented.
"Now, now. Haruka deserves that award. She's worked very hard. I can tell."
"There's a rumor that she takes steroids," Jamie whispered.
"There are too many rumors in this school and 95 of them are wrong," Candra shot back. "Sure, she may look a little manly. . ."
Jamie raised an eyebrow. "A little?"
"The point is, until she gets tested and it comes back positive, I won't believe it."
A few feet away, Michiru told Haruka, "Don't listen to her.. . .Haruka? What's wrong?"
"I, uh, just had something in my eye." Haruka wiped away a tear. And after the way I treated her at the starting line. . .
Suddenly, the sky went black. Lighting hit the baseball field's scoreboard. Everyone in the shot-put area had to quickly evacuate or become pancakes.
Evil laughter was heard. "This planet will be mine!" All of the exits disappeared as the crowd tried to get away.
Candra ran off to find a place to transform. She just so happened to notice that Haruka and Michiru were gone. With no time to ponder how they had left so quickly, Candra found a place and yelled out, "Moon Starlight Power! Make Up!" Then she jumped over the fence and landed on the track. "Hold it!"
"Oh! And you would be?" asked Sir Grety.
"Sailor StarMoon. And you?" demanded StarMoon.
"Hmmm. I don't remember you. But never mind that. Sir Grety is my name. It was nice knowing you in the last moments of your life." A ball of energy formed in front of his chest. "I hope you got to do all you wanted to do!"
The ball headed straight for StarMoon. She cartwheeled out of the way, then pulled her Wand out her brooch. "Moon Starlight Attack!" she yelled.
The Attack hit Grety in the shoulder. "You're more powerful than you look. No matter; I will win."
"In your dreams!" She took her tiara off. "Moon Frisbee!" she said and flung it at Sir Grety.
He managed to avoid it. He gave her an angry look, then gasped. The crescent moon insignia was on her forehead. "So, you are Princess Serenity of the Moon. I should have known. You were always a fighter."
"Huh?" At the mention of the name, memories started to flow through StarMoon's head. She had heard the story from Queen Serenity, but it hadn't clicked with her until just then that the story was real. But Princess Serenity was my sister. "Serenity is my. . ."
I loved her as a sister and a friend and I died trying to protect her.
". . .name, that's right. I'm surprised you knew it was me. You always had me confused me with Cynthia."
"I did. But she is dead. And you are alive, my love." He landed several meters in front of her. "Now, we can start our lives together, uninterrupted by that Prince."
"'That Prince' was my True Love!" StarMoon tried her best to think of what Serenity would have said. "How dare you dirty up his memory! And my dear sister's! Tiara Beam!"
Grety cried out in pain. He gave her an evil eye. "This isn't over! I will be back!"
Uranus and Neptune watched from the shadows as the exits reappeared. "The Death Busters have set up shop here and now we have a new enemy," Uranus commented.
Neptune could tell where she was going. "An alliance with her does not seem to be a bad idea."
"Just as long as she knows her boundaries," Uranus said.
Neptune smiled. "You have to admit that she has really improved in two weeks."
"I will gave her that." Uranus sighed. "Let's go ask her."

"Wow. So, what's it like to fight by yourself?" asked Mako.
"It can be kinda scary." Candra pulled the sheet to her chin. "If you can't handle it, will there still be a world next week? I mean, I knew that Uranus and Neptune existed, but I didn't know if they would find out in time. You get very worried." Candra looked at Mako. "At least I did. . . .How did you get your powers, Mako-chan?"
"Luna found me. I had a crush on this guy, but he was being followed by Zoisite. I tried to help, but then he became a youma. Sailor Moon showed up, but got tied up. I wanted to help, so I lifted him up over my head and threw him into the bushes. Luna saw my symbol on my forehead and gave me my pen."
"Oh." Candra looked up at the ceiling. "So, I guess we were both doing our jobs before we fully understood what we were doing."
Mako took a deep breath. "Yeah," she said, letting it back out.
"It seems odd that everything that we did in our past lives is happening now. I mean, there are obvious differences, but your duty was to protect the Princess and my instincts had always told me to do the same." Candra rolled onto her side and looked at Mako. "I wonder if it has always been that way; you know, we live, we die, and we are reborn to perform the same functions we did the last time."
"It is a possibility," agreed Mako.
"And not just us," Candra continued. "Everyone. What if we all are designated to perform the same actions with the same people with only minor differences? It's just that we are lucky enough to see what happened last time and prevent it from happning again."
Mako shrugged. "I don't know, but yawn all this thinking is making me sleepy. So, I'm gonna go to sleep." Mako rolled over. "'Night."
"Goodnight, Mako-chan." Candra rolled over. If what I just said was true, what will happen to me?

"I will have energy! I will have my bride!" Sir Grety and his youma had boxed in the gym and the basketball team started to fall to the ground. "It is almost time!" he yelled gleefully.
Greg walked out of the locker room, completely unaware that Grety was there. When he saw what was going on, he said, "I guess practice is cancelled." Quickly ducking back into the locker room before Grety saw him, he dialed Candra's number. "Come on, come on! Candra!"
"Wha?" answered Candra who was in the middle of brushing her teeth while working on her website. "Geg?"
"You and the girls need to get down here now! Grety's stealing the energy from my team!"
Candra spit out her toothpaste. "On it! Thanks! Mako-chan!" Candra closed her cell phone and ran into her room. "Greg called. His team is being attacked by Grety."
"Jupiter Crystal Power!"
"Starlight Crystal Power!"
"Make Up!"

Greg, Jupiter, StarMoon, and Venus helped the EMTs carry the players to the ambulance. "I don't get it; we got here and he was gone. We didn't waste anytime or anything," said StarMoon.
"Greg-san, why weren't you affected?" asked Venus.
"I had gone into the locker room. We had ten minutes before we began, so I took my time," said Greg. "He might have been almost done when I finally saw what was going on. I'm sorry."
"That's okay," said Venus. "We know. . ."
StarMoon's cell phone rang again. "Moshi Moshi? Jim?. . .Okay, we'll be there. Jim's at the Crown. Grety's there now."
"Let's do it!" said Venus.

"Hold it right. . .! Huh?" Venus stopped herself has she and the other two looked around.
"He's already done here, too?" said StarMoon. "But Jim called, like, two seconds ago. It should have taken Grety longer than that to do this."
"Jim-chan!" Venus tapped his face, but he did not respond.
"He got everyone this time, even the people in the back," reported Jupiter.
StarMoon pulled out her mini. "Minna! Grety is randomly attacking places and quickly stealing their energy! We need spread out and search for him! We can't let anyone else get hurt!"
"StarMoon! He's here at the mall!" yelled Moon. "It's just ChibiMoon and me!"
"Let's go!" yelled StarMoon. Jupiter and Venus nodded.

"Pink Sugar Heart Attack!" The hearts destroyed one of the youma, but they just kept coming. ChibiMoon gasped as she and Sailor Moon were backed into a corner. "Sailor Moon! What are we going to do?"
"Let me try again. Starlight HoneyMoon Therapy Kiss!"
The rest of the youma disappeared, but Grety just snapped his fingers and more took their place. "So, Sailor Moon. I guess this is the end of you and that little girl. You know, all I wanted was your sister as my bride and Endymion dead. I wasn't going to touch you. However, you and all the rest have foiled me for the last time! This world will now be mine!"
"Starlight Supreme Thunder!" yelled StarMoon. An even brighter lighting bolt came out of her Wand along with more crescent moons and now stars. Grety screamed in agony. His cape caught on fire and he had to quickly discard it. His youma also disappeared. "You are getting on my nerves!" he screamed. "Marry me and I still might let your sister go!"
"See, there's that word 'might'. I don't trust it," said StarMoon. "At least, not coming from your mouth."
Grety screamed and started throwing blasts of energy everywhere at random. The girls did their best to dodge. "Venus Love . . .and Beauty. . .Shock!"
"Sparkling . . .Wide. . Press. . .ure!"
"Moon. . .ACK! Moon Frisbee!"
Finally, it just got to the point that they had to hide to save themselves. "Now what?" asked ChibiMoon.
"I'm here!" called out Saturn.
"So are we!" called out Mars with Mercury.
StarMoon pulled ChibiMoon away from the others. "We're gonna do something. We will be right back."
"Um, okay," said Moon. "As for the rest of us. . .?"
"Let's see if we can't keep him in the building," said Venus. "We need to made sure that the mall does not collapse." Across the way, one of the stores caved in. "Hopefully he calms down soon. Come on!"
As he continued his assault, Grety muttered. "I was loyal to the Moon Queen, but was rejected. I was loyal to the Earth Queen, but was rejected. I was loyal to the Dark Queen, but was rejected. My bride! I will not be rejected again!"
Standing out of the way of the attacks but within sight of each other, the Sailor Senshi closed their eyes and started to concentrate all of their energy into forming a barrier in the mall. Uranus and Neptune ran in and joined them. They could only hope to keep the mall standing until he calmed down. There was nothing they could do until then.

"What are we going to do?" asked ChibiMoon.
"We are going to unlock our greatest powers," StarMoon answered.
"What do you mean?"
"When I powered up to Super, right before I did, I had this. . .feeling. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I feel it now." She placed her hand on ChibiMoon's head. "Somehow, I feel that I need to share this with you."
ChibiMoon smiled. "Alright!"
StarMoon smiled right back. "Put the palms of your hands on mine." ChibiMoon did as she was told. "Now, think about what you want to do with your powers. Be honest; this won't work for either of us if one of us is lying."
ChibiMoon nodded. "I will do my best."
They closed their eyes.

By now, Pluto had joined the others. Grety was starting to wear himself out. Since his attacks weren't as powerful or as frequent, the Senshi were able to repair some of the damage. However, the building was still in danger of collapsing. Also, unbeknownst to them, Grety was also slowing down to start taking their energy.

I have never had such great friends until I got here, thought StarMoon. Rarely did a person take the time to really get to know me. I want to protect these girls, my friends. She started to glow gray.
I may make fun of her, but I really love Usagi, thought ChibiMoon. She is so kind and caring and even though she can be a ditz, I know that I can count on her when things get really rough.
ChibiUsa is a great kid. Like Serenity. She can be counted on in a pinch, even if she doesn't have the power or the knowledge to back herself up.
I just adore Candra. She is just like Usagi: always ready to help when things are going wrong.
ChibiMoon started to glow pink.

Venus fell to her knees, followed by Mars and Mercury. Grety had stopped his attack but the girls were already having what was left of their energy drained. They had spent so much on trying to keep the building up, they now they didn't even have enough to attack and Sailor Moon was too weak to even attempt to fly. "You all fell for it!" screamed Grety. "And now, in mere moments, I will have all the energy I need for total domination of the galaxy!" He smirked. "How ironic; the people who are supposed to be protecting the Earth are the very people who are going to bring it's demise. Isn't that right, Prince?"
Mamoru appeared. He came standing, but since he was also unconscious, he fell to the ground.
"Mamo-chan," Moon breathed weakly.

However. . .
. . .without a place to live. . .
. . .taking care of them becomes. . .
. . .pointless. So, I want. . .
. . .to use my powers. . .
. . .to protect this planet. . .
Together
, they thought, to live with the ones I love!
The gray and pink glowing grew brighter until each was covered by her own light. StarMoon opened her eyes and saw ChibiMoon's light. She smiled. We are ready.

Chapter Seventeen: StarMoon and ChibiMoon's Power Within. The Moon Queen Arrives!