Disclamer: I am in no way responsible for the ownership of said Moon, or any of her friends. I am a starving college student, so even if you wanted to sue me, you wouldn't get jack!

Italics: Thoughts

Chapter 11: "Memories"

Friday arrived bright and early, with a sunshine that was matched by two blonde teenage girl's smiles. Mina and Serena had done so much to prepare for what they, and all of their friends, saw as one of the most exciting things to happen in a long time.

The party at Darien's.

While they skipped to school, on time, they both thought about the recent nights and practices at Rei's. The nights held special memories for both of them, one romantic, the other, social.

Serena was thrilled that the girls finally knew about her secret hobby. She never felt that telling them was important, so she continued to play the bass guitar when Luna and the girls weren't around. Her skill astounded the other senshi, who were unused to seeing such, for lack of a better word, "cool" behavior coming from their klutz. Serena clearly enjoyed what she did, and her playing proved that there was a lot more to the princess than what met the eye.

She giggled to her self, "Darien's gonna flip when he finds out!" With that, she laughed all the way to Haruna-sensei's class.

Mina was trying to concentrate on anything other than her best friend.

Oh I don't care that we haven't said anything about dating yet, he's still my best friend and wonderful! She let her insides gush all over and mentally trip, only to be caught by strong arms. She could almost see those deep brown eyes and hair that fell around his face.

The past week had been an amazing experience. She had two kisses on the cheek and countless looks from her crush. Just being with him made her feel complete. Mina thought about how she found for the first time, walking straight into Serena. Her first thought was, Great! How come Serena gets all the cute ones? Then she hit herself. Serena was taken, and clearly enjoying it. Maybe I could salvage this? With that, she let out a impish giggle.

That's when she got a good look at the young American. She felt her heart leap just from looking into his eyes, and when he took her hand, she felt at a complete loss for words. It was pure luck that he spoke first. Since then, she could hardly contain herself. She knew that there was something different about this guy, not at all like Ace.

She didn't want to go there. He hurt her before, and there were just too many painful memories to bring to this happy day.

Instead, Mina shook herself physically, and continued to walk to her first class.

Her thoughts drifted to Jay again, as Chad and Darien called him a few times. She really liked Jonathan. It sounded like it meant something. Something important.

I'm rambling again, she thought. Well, she couldn't forget the first night of practice. He was sitting at the drum set, playing along with Chad and Serena and when he sang those lyrics, she just melted. The song that he played had so much power in it, lyrics and instruments alike. She understood why he thought the song was more suited to the situation at hand.

She couldn't help but think that there was hidden meaning behind all of the words and songs that he used. They all were powerful songs. Serena's and Rei's particularly. Well, her song was just really, really fun. She remembered when she first looked at the music sheet, handwritten by Jonathan. The song fit her so well.

I hope that it comes true! She giggled and walked the rest of the way to her first class with one of the biggest smiles she ever produced on her face.

Jonathan was running through the final preparations for the night's performance, when he suddenly felt very, very nostalgic.

I need to sit for a second. He went to the grand piano that was in the lobby of Darien's apartment, and sat on the bench. He stared at the keys as he remembered the previous week's events.

The night that stood out the most was when he first heard Mina play and sing the song he prepared for her. It practically screamed her name! He couldn't wait to hear how the audience liked Mina Aino! Her playing, and the skills of all the other girls as well, simply blew his mind! Ami was even loosening up, occasionally playing extra notes and rhythms on her synth-pad during a heavy song. That brought some nice looks from the gathered friends, and thus began another round of good natured banter.

He never noticed when Darien and Chad approached him with another round of logistical questions.

"Hey man, like are you ok?" Chad asked. Jonathan had to stifle a chuckle as he silently counted, "twenty-three".

"Guys, I think that all we need to do now, is start cleaning my apartment."

Both the other guys in the room just looked at Darien with some of the most astounded looks. "HOW!" They both yelled in unison.

"Yeah, Like it was already spotless, dude."

"I agree! Even I couldn't make a dent in your immaculate living quarters. Oh, and twenty-four."

Chad looked at Jonathan with a puzzled expression. "What are you counting, Jay?"

Darien brought himself back into the picture when he couldn't hold in his laughter any longer.

"He's counting the number of times that you've said "like" in the past minute."

"Hey! Like that's not cool, man."

"Twenty-five." they both said as one. With that, Chad stormed off to the elevators as the two others fought to control their laughter.

A block from Darien's apartment building and several thousand feet under ground, a massive group of monsters were beginning to dig through the crust of the earth. Their destination, the surface. Their mission, establish a beachhead for the assault on the surface world. They still had a day and a half's work ahead of them, and Beelzebub was not happy about the lack of progress.

"What is the problem up there?" He asked to no one in particular.

To his dismay, an undead ghoul answered, " The former calculations to put us on the surface seemed to have been performed incorrectly. Instead, the portal deposited our main advance force here, several thousand feet beneath our current target."

Beelzebub groaned and silenced the ghoul with a flash of his hidden blade. The gray liquid that issued from the now severed neck of the ghoul splattered on the maggots that were digging the tunnel to the surface. He really hated the fact that some of the ghouls were long dead scientists, supposed to carry vast knowledge. He just saw them as a major head ache.

"Soon. So soon." he seethed as he waited for the maggots to finish their work.

Behind him, a massive hide of pure muscle shared his feelings of impatience as it uttered low growls and heavy breathing. It was so fearsome in appearance, that the maggots near it scurried to the front of the tunnel, as if to try and dig to get away from the menace.