A/N: Just a bit of a filler chapter. Really, stick with me! The next few chapters get better!
Disclaimer: I still own know part of Sailor Moon or any of these characters.
"HINO REI, YOU WAKE UP RIGHT NOW! DO YOU HERE ME?!? RIGHT NOW!!!"
Rei felt herself being shaken, hard. She opened her eyes blearily to find herself face to face with a crying Usagi.
"Are you crazy?" she asked. "What are you doing? Let go!"
Instead of letting go, Usagi threw herself onto Rei's neck and burst into sobs. "You're alive!"
"I know I'm alive! What is the matter with you?"
Luna appeared at her side, looking greatly relieved. "When we came in, you weren't breathing!"
"What?!?" Rei looked to Usagi, to see her nod a tearful confirmation. "I must have been breathing! I'm still alive!"
"You weren't!" Usagi argued stubbornly. "You scared me so much!"
Shaking her head, Rei pulled the blanket closer around her. She felt strangely cold. Her friend quickly moved to help, tucking it around her shoulders. "There! Is that better?"
"Usagi, I'm fine!" The fiery girl tried to keep her voice sharp, but it was always hard to be mad at Usagi when she was being so sweet.
"You're not fine. No one is fine! Ami and Minako have been crying, and Makoto said there was some kind of accident in her apartment building, and I haven't had time to even call Haruka, and oh, Rei, I had the most horrible dream last night!"
"Last night..." Rei sat up straighter. "Last night, I felt it! There's some horrible new evil in Tokyo!"
Whatever response she had expected, it wasn't for Usagi to turn to Luna smugly and say, "I told you so!"
"Usagi, pay attention!" Luna ordered.
"Right." She turned back to Rei. "What kind of evil?"
"I don't know. It felt like... like a maggot in an apple! It felt like something foul trying to gnaw it's way into everything sweet. It made me feel sick to my stomach. But then I..."
She froze, remembering what she had done last night. Usagi leaned forward with concern.
"What? What happened last night?"
"I gave up."
The blue eyes across from her showed no understanding. "Gave up what?"
"Everything! Everything we stand for, everything we are! I should have called you the second I felt that thing, but I just rolled over and went back to sleep. No, not even that. I wanted everything, all our problems, the whole world, to just disappear. I wanted to disappear."
Usagi just looked worried, but Luna slowly said, "That's not like you."
"I know it's not, but last night-"
"No, wait. It's not like you to give up, and it's not like Ami to go into a frenzy where she destroys her room," Luna explained. "But both of you did just that last night."
"So it's not you!" Usagi added cheerfully. "It's this new evil, right?"
Rei pondered this, then nodded. "That actually makes a kind of sense. Last night, just before I fell asleep, I felt like the air got thicker. I felt like reality got thick, and twisted somehow. It did something to the world. It changed the world, just by being in it."
"That doesn't sound good," Usagi muttered.
Luna lay down on the bed with her chin on her front paws. "You'd best get up and get dressed, Rei. We have to go over to Ami's to talk to the other girls."
As Rei did that, she saw Usagi touch her communicator. A moment later, she heard Haruka's voice.
"What is it, kitten?"
"Something weird is going on," Usagi said. "Is everyone alright?"
A long pause followed, before Haruka said, "Of course! We're fine!"
"Well, in that case, can you meet us at Ami's? We need to talk. All of us."
Another pause, as they all heard Michiru's voice in the background. "Hotaru, open this door!"
"We'll be there in about an hour," Haruka promised.
Usagi raised an eyebrow at Rei. "What was that all about?"