Disclaimer: This story is mine, so don't copy. If you want to use something in my story in your own fic, please make sure you have my permission first. Sailor Moon & Co. belongs to me too...did you really believe that? If Sailor Moon & Co. belonged to me, don't you think I would have gotten rich off of writing this by now?

Warning: More cursing in this chapter. Sorry guys, but Mamoru is quite obviously not a morning person.

OOOPS!
Chapter Six
—Conspiracies—

-Tsukino Usagi
8:00pm; Hikawa Jinga -

The delicious smell of sushi and dumplings with noodles wafted into the room, making my mouth water. Makoto was cooking. She always cooked when we had sleepovers. Minako was always in charge of movies, and Rei had music, as she was the one with the biggest CD collection. I brought other entertainment, such as manga books, video games, and miscellaneous snacks that could not be prepared in a kitchen, and Ami brought board games and made sure that she had clean alternatives to Mina's pervy ideas. Sometimes though, we went with Mina's ideas anyway. It was good to let loose once in a while, especially when it involved Mamoru with neon pink hair.

Outside, torrents of water ran down the roof. The rain was washing the world clean. Thunder roared in the distance, and occasionally, I saw a flash of lightening through the open door. But it didn't bother me. I know that I've mentioned my dislike of thunder storms once or twice, but the truth is, they're not so bad when you're in a warm, cozy room, surrounded by friends, drinking hot chocolate and laughing so hard that it comes out of your nose. Not that anything of the sort had ever happened. We were princesses after all, even if we hadn't been forced to sit through an etiquette class in over a thousand years.

I was unkindly startled out of my reverie by something small and round connecting with the middle of my forehead. Frowning slightly, I picked up the popcorn kernel off my lap and chucked it back at Rei. She caught it easily.

"If you're not reading, you could at least let someone else have a turn," she pointed out.

I looked at the manga book in my lap curiously. I hadn't gotten past the first page in the last half an hour and no longer remembered what the story was supposed to be about.

"Hello? Earth to Odango!" Rei snapped her fingers in front of my face, prompting an annoyed eye roll from me. I handed her the graphic novel in question and stood up to change the channel. Mina had yet to arrive because she had promised to check in with her parents before the sleepover, and we were sadly deprived of visual entertainment. Rei did have some old videos, but we'd all seen them so many times we had taken to talking along with the characters and making sarcastic comments throughout the film. It annoyed the hell out of Yuuichirou, who sometimes watched them with us.

"I haven't been avoiding you," came the slightly distorted voice from the television set. "I've been stranded on a strange planet for a number of years. You look great! You're doing well...You've grown!" My lips twitched a little at the picture the man made, making excuses to a woman twice his size (it wasn't a weight problem so much as the genes—she was half-giant, see), and I was reconsidering changing the channel when a door flew open, and Mina stumbled in, drenched to the bone from the pouring rain, with an unhappy-looking Luna and Artemis perched on either shoulder.

As the two felines jumped down and made their way over to the fireplace, I sidled over to Mina and gave her a look that I liked to think conveyed my feelings better than any words could have. Apparently though, it didn't, because Mina's face, instead of filling with comprehension and sympathy, was filled with confusion.

"You couldn't leave them at home?" I whispered.

Mina smiled and shook her head apologetically, pulling four videos out of her bag. "I bumped into them on my way here, and Luna decided she wanted to come."

I nodded in understanding and sighed. It wasn't that I didn't like Luna. I liked her well enough. There was no reason why I shouldn't. She cared about us and our safety, and I was well past the stage where she had to bully me into fighting every time a monster came around. It was just that she had a tendency to forget that we were just fifteen, or in Rei's case, sixteen.

I knew she meant well, but the thing of the matter was: I already had a mother. I didn't need another one.

"So how was your day, girls?" Artemis asked stretching languidly, as only a cat can.

"Oh, it was brilliant," Mina exclaimed. "We went shopping, and Ami and Rei made some old hag blue in the face with a couple of well-placed words. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life."

"Well that's nice," Luna murmured indifferently.

"Yup," Rei agreed. "And guess what else! Spaghetti brains over there," here she paused to incline her head at me, "told Mamoru and Motoki that she's Sailor Moon."

Luna's head, which had been resting peacefully on her paws as she watched the dancing flames, jerked up, all pretense of apathy gone. "What?" Her voice came out shrill, her accent swallowed in surprise. I winced and shot Rei an annoyed look. Giving me the silent treatment was one thing but tattling to Luna? That was low, even for her.

"It was a diversionary tactic," I explained.

"Why would you need a diversionary tactic?" Artemis interrupted curiously.

"Because Motoki locked me and Chiba in a storage closet last night, and I mysteriously disappeared while he was asleep. I fed them some bull about the Sailor Senshi rescuing me, but Mamoru-baka didn't buy it, so I played off his suspicions as a joke."

"He locked you two in a storage closet?" Ami asked.

Makoto walked into the room, balancing several trays of food in her arms and attempted to set down a plate of noodles on the table without knocking the trays of sushi she was holding onto the floor. Nodding in response, I jumped up to help her.

"Why would he do that?"

I scratched my head in feigned confusion. "No idea…but I think it might have had to do with the fact that Mamoru-baka knocked his scalding cup of coffee over on him."

Rei raised her eyebrows. "Was that all?"

I nodded.

"Really? That's funny, because the way I heard it, the reason Mamoru knocked his coffee over on Motoki was that he didn't see the cup there and tipped it over when he was reaching for the napkins to clean off the triple chocolate milkshake you had decorated his lap with." I glared at Makoto. She looked way too happy.

"So I forgot a few details." I shrugged. "Could have happened to anyone."

"All right," murmured Mina, piecing the bits and pieces that I'd told them together, "so Motoki got angry and locked you in a closet. Then what happened?"

"Mamoru-baka abused the door, we played cards, traded a couple of insults, I pretended to sleep, you guys called, he found my communicator, he dismissed it as being a useless trinket, he fell asleep. I henshined and destroyed the door and got the hell out of there. The end."

"The Adventures of Milkshake Klutz and Coffee Man, the condensed version," Rei muttered under her breath. I rolled my eyes.

"So you told them that you're Sailor Moon?" Apparently, Luna was still reeling from the earlier shock Rei's declaration had provoked. I tried to help.

"Don't worry; they didn't believe me."

"Well of course they didn't believe you," she snapped. "Who in the world would?" I could see that as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. "I'm sorry, Usagi," she whispered. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that."

I shrugged it off with a light smile and a wave of my hand, and the evening continued on. I didn't really mind so much when people thought I was ditzy and clumsy and incapable of doing anything that required an iota of thought. It meant that what I was doing was working. If my friends didn't have enough faith in me to believe that I could be Sailor Moon, then our enemies wouldn't even consider it. Still, the fact that Luna had gotten so used to the disguise that she forgot to see through it, hurt. It hurt a lot.

(X)(X)(X)
-Chiba Mamoru
Sunday (2:00am); His Apartment-

If I wanted to be dramatic, I'd say that I jolted awake with a gasp, and that I sat in my bed trying to catch my breath, still reeling from the nightmares that plagued me…but that didn't actually happen. First of all, I hadn't been having nightmares, although I had been dreaming; about the princess, of course—I can't remember the last time I'd dreamed of something else. Second of all, I awoke with something more akin to a shudder than a jolt, and the cause of it was something much less frightening than a nightmare. Or so I thought until I picked up the blasted contraption.

"Mochi mochi," I mumbled blearily.

"Hey Mamoru, it's me, Motoki. We've got to talk."

"Can't it wait?" I stifled a yawn and checked the time.

"Uh, no, not really."

"It's fuckin' two in the morning," I snarled, all sleepiness dispersed. "Somebody better have died."

"Actually, I th…you se…I uh…"

"Furuhata!" I snapped. "Start making sense."

"I wanna call the bet off."

I very politely told Motoki exactly where he could go and then slammed the receiver back into its cage.

Furuhata Motoki was my best friend. He had always been my best friend and will always be my best friend. But right then and there? I really wanted to strangle him. Not only had he called me at two o'clock in the morning about some stupid bet, but he had also failed spectacularly to apologize for waking me up.

I got into bed and tried to go back to sleep, which would have been just fine and dandy except for the fact that I couldn't. Because now, I was curious. Why did he want to call the bet off? Was he scared to lose or was it something else? And on that note, why had he made the bet in the first place? Motoki had never been the sort of person to place bets on things where feelings could possibly be hurt. So had it been a spur of the moment sort of thing, or was something bigger at work here?

Frowning, I got out of bed and picked up the receiver. I dialed the number from memory. Motoki picked up almost immediately.

"I'm listening," I said.

(X)(X)(X)
-Unknown
Whereabouts: Not Available-

"Well?" the voice echoed through the mist, commanding the attention of everyone in its vicinity. It was a voice made to give commands, made to demand information, and even though its source was not visible, it gave the distinct impression of a slightly irritated woman, posed with her hands on her hips, ready to move at any moment and strangle her companion.

"His friend called the bet off," another voice replied. It was an octave lower than the first and carried with it the same implications.

The first voice groaned. "We're fucked."

"Not necessarily."

"Oh?"

"Well, the bet may be off, but now he's curious. He's not going to let it go."

"How do you know?"

"Would I have let it go?" The hint of amusement echoed through the air.

"Of course not."

"Exactly."

"But they're not us, you know."

"I know. If they had been, some of the suggestions they made in that closet would have actually been taken."

A soft laugh followed the statement and then silence.

"A penny for your thoughts?"

"A penny?" the more feminine voice asked incredulously. "Is that all they're worth?"

More silence, then: "I want—"

"I know." There was a pause. "Why are we fucking with their lives?"

"Because we're selfish."

"How can we be sure it's even going to work?"

"We can't. We can only hope."

"Why do you think we're here?" the voice was soft now and not nearly as commanding as it had been in the beginning.

"That's simple, isn't it? We have to guide them."

"So we're supposed live in their heads, as spirits, unable to anything but talk to each other and to them, after we gave our lives for love?"

"Your mother had a sick sense of humor."

"Yeah, and she never did like you."

"Like I cared." Another pause. "Why though?"

"She thought you were a bad influence on me."

The second voice snorted. "Has your mother met you?"

A mock gasp. "Don't be absurd. I was the perfect picture of innocence before I met you. You corrupted me."

"I corrupted you? I wasn't the one who suggested we lock Raina in a closet with Jadeite."

"Okay, in all fairness, I expected them to kill each other, not…"

"Do something little kids shouldn't see?" he suggested. His smirk radiated through the air. "You, my dear, were completely and utterly corrupted long before I got a hold of you." There were a few seconds of silence. "Stop sulking, darling," he chastised, "and put your tongue back in your mouth where it belongs."

"Hmm…and here I thought—"

"When we're corporeal," he promised her, wickedly. "For now, though, we have to finish what we started. I think I'm going to make him dream."

"Hmm. I suppose I should as well. Just make sure he tones it down somewhat. She's getting suspicious and the crude comments you've been feeding him aren't helping."

(X)(X)(X)
-Usagi's POV
Sunday (3:00am); Hikawa Jinga-

-(X)-

"They're targeting girls who look like the Senshi."

"I got attacked last night on my way home. Sailor Mars rescued me. I thought I was dead for sure."

"It's not just girls. They're attacking families, too."

"Did you hear that Keiko's parents were taken hostage in yesterday's attack? She's got blonde hair and blue eyes, just like Sailor Moon!"

The voices echoed around me, making my head spin. It was all the same story. The Dark Kingdom was getting smarter. They realized that the Senshi's outfits prevented people from recognizing them, but the main traits were still visible, and what better way to get to superheroes than targeting their families or other innocent bystanders?

The scene changed abruptly, and I found myself in a throne room reminiscent of the Silver Palace. For a minute, I thought I was in one of Serenity's memories. Then, I heard the screams.

I spun around. There, from every pillar, every column supporting the ceiling, hung someone I knew. At first, it was just people I saw in class or in the arcade, but as I kept running, it was my friends that I saw. Unazuki, Motoki, Naru, Yuuichirou, Umino, Asanuma, Ryo, Mamoru, Rei, Ami, Mina, Mako, Shingo, Mama, Papa, the faces raced by me as I ran, writhing in agony, crying out for me to save them.

I reached for my broach. Not there. I couldn't save them, couldn't help them.

Beryl appeared in my path, spreading her arms like an overgrown bat, revering her handiwork. "How does it feel, you impudent whelp? How does it feel to know that you will be the cause of their deaths? I will kill them all, Sailor Moon, just because they know you exist." She waved her hand, and I heard necks snap, watched their bodies become still. Her laughter rung through the hall.

I dropped to my knees. I couldn't breathe. I didn't want to breathe. I just wanted to curl up and die and scream…

-(X)-

With a gasp, I jolted awake to a sitting position in my sleeping bag. I grabbed onto a nearby door frame for support and tried to catch my breath. My heart hammered in my chest, pounding like a caged animal. After a few minutes, I had clamed down enough to inhale without sounding like a dying hippopotamus. I ran a hand through my hair, blinking away the tears that had gathered in the corners of my eyes.

"Are you all right?" a voice murmured in the darkness. I waited for my eyes to adjust and then squinted into the grey nothingness of the room. Rei was sitting up in her sleeping bag, looking at me with concern.

"Yeah," I whispered back.

"Nightmare?"

"Hmm," I confirmed.

"Kay. I'm here if you want to talk."

"Thanks," I paused, "you know, pyro, you're one of the best friends I've ever had, even if you are a real bitch sometimes."

"Erm…thanks…I think."

I laughed, feeling a little better. "Anytime."

(X)(X)(X)
-Chiba Mamoru
3:00am; Crown Center Arcade-

"So tell me again why you've decided to call off the bet."

We sat at one of the tables in the Crown Center Arcade, where I had agreed to meet Motoki an hour earlier. I had grown so accustomed to the noise that was so generally common to our favorite hangout that the silence started bothering me ten minutes into our conversation.

Motoki placed a tray of hamburgers and French fries onto the table, then doubled back to get drinks. Once he had assured that I had enough food in front of me to keep me from strangling him, he sat down across from me.

"Guilty conscience," he explained. "I don't even know why I made that stupid bet in the first place. Usagi's my friend. No amount of money is worth watching someone screw with her feelings."

I nodded. "I figured as much."

Motoki shot me a relieved grin. "So you're going to back off then?"

"Not exactly." His face fell.

"I don't understand. There's no bet, and you've never given the girl a second glance before, so why—"

"First of all, you're wrong about the second glance thing," I interrupted, shoving a fry into my mouth. "Out of all the girls I've ever met, Tsukino Usagi is the one I've paid the most attention to. Still, I haven't really seen her as anything more than ditz with an exceptionally sharp tongue until now." I smiled wickedly. "Thanks to you, Motoki, I saw a completely different side of Usagi on Friday, and I'm not going to rest until I find out why everybody else hasn't seen that side of her as well. Don't you feel special?"

"Mamoru-" Motoki began warily, but I didn't let him finish.

"You know when she said that she's Sailor Moon—" This time, it was I who was cut short.

"You've got to be kidding me. Usagi? Sailor Moon? That's—"

"Absurd? Ridiculous? Absofuckinlutely insane?" I suggested, my eyes glinting. "Exactly."

Motoki stared. "You're crazy."

I held up my hand. "Just hear me out."

Motoki crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. "By all means."

"Fact one: Usagi is the exact same person she was a year ago, only now, she isn't quite as happy, and once in a while, to those who know her well, she seems older than fifteen. She's changed, but none of us have really noticed because she still acts like a ditzy fourteen-year-old. Fact two: Usagi disappeared yesterday after we'd been in the closet for over three hours. We only called out for help in the fist ten minutes, so what happened? Fact three: Have you noticed that Usagi's been coming in with all sorts of odd scrapes and bruises lately?"

"Maybe she's having problems at home," Motoki countered.

I snorted. "Please. I've met her father. That man would sooner gnaw off his own hand than raise it against one of his children. And her mother—let's not even go there."

"Boyfriend."

"She's single." Motoki looked surprised.

"How do you know?"

I shrugged. "I did some research."

"All right, so fact four?"

"Fact four: There are five Sailor Senshi. Usagi has four friends. The five of them are nearly joined at the hip, and each one bears a striking resemblance to one of the Senshi."

"No, they don't." I nodded.

"Yes, they do. You just don't see it. No one really does because of the way the magic works. The fukus are designed to make people disoriented when it comes to the Sailor Senshi as a whole. What you have to do is look at individual traits. Hair color, eye color, legs—" Motoki's eyebrows disappeared beneath his hair. I rolled my eyes. "Like you haven't looked."

After I heard the muttered "Good point," I continued.

"When you compare those traits to people, the magic fails. Consider Sailor Moon's unique hairstyle, for instance. Remind you of anyone?"

"Coincidence."

"Yeah, and I'm in love with Haruka Ten'oh," I scoffed. "And besides, there's more. Fact five: Usagi has a Senshi communicator. I saw it on Friday, when we were in the closet, and although I thought it was one of those fake ones at first, I'm beginning to reconsider. Fact six: She confessed."

"Surely you can't be talking about this morning."

"Oh, but I am. What better way to trick someone then to tell the truth, especially if it sounds so crazy that no one would believe you any way?"

Motoki shook his head in disbelief. "You've been watching too much TV."

Frowning deeply, I leaned across the table. "Usagi's Sailor Moon," I told him. "And I'm going to prove it if it's the last thing I do."

TBC

A/N #2: I rushed in the beta-ing so I apologize if there are mistakes. Hopefully, I took care of the bigger ones. Also, in case anybody's wondering, all the inner Senshi, including Tuxedo Kamen have birthdays after May, which is the month this fic is set in. Rei's birthday, however, is on April 17th, making her sixteen, and not fifteen at the time of the story. Credit for the closet and things little kids shouldn't see goes purely to the wonderful Black Beyond, whose fics can be found here on ffnet. The quote from the television at the beginning of the chapter was from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the movie).

So this update was four weeks coming but I do promise that it's all going somewhere. I take my Global Regents today and my Chemistry Regents tomorrow, so I have Thursday and Friday to write chapter seven (which WILL go up Saturday morning even if it kills me). From there, I think you can expect the next chapter on Fourth of July weekend. I'm hoping I'll have the rest of the fic outlined well enough to post more than one chapter but at this point, it seems as if I won't be able to post the conclusion until I get back from camp because I don't know whether or not I will have internet access.

That's just to let you guys know what's going on.

Tell me you appreciate it in your review. .

/I had a linguistics professor who said that it's man's ability to use language that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may be. But I think there's one other thing that separates us from animals. We aren't afraid of vacuum cleaners./ -Jeff Stilson