A/N – Yay! Update! I'm very glad that my chapters are getting longer and longer. I'm getting very happy with where my story is going! Thanks for the reviews as well! Much appreciated! I'll try to update as soon as possible!

Chapter Six:

A friend in needs a friend indeed,
A friend who bleeds is better,
My friend confessed she passed the test,
And we will never sever

Placebo – Pure Morning

Michiru was sitting on her bed, her arm wrapped in a sling. The impact against the wall had because a muscle to be ripped and her shoulder to pop from its socket. In reality, it wouldn't take that long to heal, perhaps a minimum of five weeks.

She wasn't allowed to play the violin until her arm was out of the sling, that didn't matter though. The chef didn't trust Michiru anymore; the chef would never again allow Michiru to teach Sakiko the violin. Michiru remembered those harsh words; the ones where he had told her that it was a mistake to let her even come near to Sakiko in the first place.

Now Michiru had to find a new job, she only had enough rent saved up to pay for this month and the next. If she didn't get another job she would have no other option but to move to the west and learn English and go to an English school and live with people who she had never even met.

'I can't get all depressed over this.' Michiru thought.

The pen she had acquired rested on her bedside table. It stared at her; the symbol of Neptune engraved at the top if it. That pen had given her a power that had rested dormant inside of her, and now Michiru constantly felt that power.

The power of the sea had been awakened, she could feel the disturbances and evil that it was trying to warn her about. In school it would cloud her mind. She had never asked for this power and she didn't want it.

She didn't want a power that made her chose who to sacrifice and who to save; she didn't want to make that decision. It felt like now she had to do something with the power she held, as if she was chosen to carry out a certain task.

The memory of her dream flashed back into her head, The End of the World, her painting. Perhaps the pen and her dream had something in common; perhaps she was supposed to do something about the havoc and chaos that destroyed her city in her dream. Or was it just a dream?

Maybe it was a vision of the future, which something horrible was coming this way and it was all up to her to stop. She laughed in scorn. She was no messiah, she couldn't be expected to save the world from a dark force that turned everything in its path to stone.

Now the message she wanted to send out with her picture was clear. She wanted to warn everyone who saw her picture that the end would be coming. That everyone one was going to die.

"Yes, we're all going to die. My picture is just the equivalent of a preacher standing on a corner with a giant sign reading 'Jesus Will Save Us'." Michiru spat.

She reached over and picked up her pen, gazing into it longingly.

"My parents tried to rule my destiny before they died. I was only their puppet; I had to be the best to please the Kaioh family. Now I'm being controlled by a stick. I've lost the freedom I had gained." Her hand clutched the pen tighter, her knuckles turned white, "Now I'm plagued by these silly dreams about the end of the world. My soul wants to do something about it; something inside me is telling me that I must do something."

Michiru threw the pen across the room, it landing with a metallic thud on the floor. Tears began to stream down her face.

"What if I don't want to do anything? What if I just want to be normal? Why can't I be free?"

She burst out into tears, clutching the bed with her right hand. Too much had happened to her over such a short period of time, now the weight of the world was literally placed on her shoulders. Wiping away the tears from her eyes Michiru found herself calm again.

"I-I won't let my destiny over take me. I refuse to follow it like a sheep." She whispered.

She looked past her bedroom door into her living room, the giant canvas with a half painted picture stared back. It was her duty as an artist to finish it. After it was done she would get rid of it, sell it or something.

She got up from the bed and made her way over to it. Placing a hand on the dry paint, she felt the texture underneath her palm. A tinge of regret made her shudder.

"Michi!"

The familiar call of Elza came from across the hall. The girl came running down the hallway, squeezing past her fellow students, eventually finding Michiru at her locker. Michiru glanced upwards, forcing a smile on her face.

"Michi, I heard you broke you arm! Oh, wow, it's in a sling and everything!" Elza exclaimed, trying not to prod Michiru's injury.

"Yeah, I had an accident. I didn't exactly break it. More like dislocate it and rip a muscle. Nothing big, I'll be fine in no time!" Michiru said through a veil of fake happiness.

"Well, since I bet you can't play violin for a bit, wanna watch me practice after school?"

"It won't be boring, will it?" Michiru questioned.

"When is track ever boring? It's the most exciting thing in the whole entire world!" Elza exclaimed, "Besides, you'd get to watch me kick Tenoh's ass today. I'm going all out!"

"Tenoh?" Michiru wondered allowed.

"Yeah, remember? The girl who is almost as good as me." Elza prided.

"I'm sure she is. Elza, you do not need your ego boosted further." Michiru said, trying to put her sketch book away in her bag as gracefully as she could with one hand.

"Ha ha, very funny miss Kaioh. Hey, how do you write with that sling?"

"Like I normally do. I only hurt my left arm, I'm right handed, remember?" Michiru glared.

Elza backed a little away, frightened by Michiru's sudden coldness. The stare she had just been given was the kind of stare she gave to the boys when they were saying dirty things around them. It was the stare of someone who wanted to be left alone.

"Elza, I'll see you after school, I'll come watch you practice. Now, I need to get going. I have some things to do right now." Michiru stated and shifted her book bag to a more comfortable position.

Closing her locker door, Michiru walked past Elza, careful not to bump into Elza or anyone else around her.

Michiru was going to eat alone at lunch; she didn't want to talk to her ever so happy friend. She didn't want to hear about Tenoh or the track team. She just wanted to eat lunch in peace, with no one to bug her at all.

Michiru found herself eating in the bleachers, watching one of the boys run around the track. He looked quite determined and ran extremely fast. Michiru bit into the sandwich she had made thinking to herself 'if only I could run like that.'

Sighing, Michiru closed her eyes. Did anyone else have visions like hers?

It was after school and the track team was practicing. It was then Michiru noticed that the blonde haired boy wasn't really a boy, but a very tomboyish girl. Elza was preparing herself for a nice, long run. She was doing stretches on the sidelines along with the rest of the team. Tenoh was apart from the group. Michiru wondered why.

Elza looked very excited. She was jumping up and down, talking with the other team mates also. Elza walked over to Tenoh.

"Haruka, good luck with today's practice. I'm going all out." Elza grinned.

"Why don't you save it for the race? If you show me all you've got right now then it'll be easier to beat you in the finals." Haruka said, tying up her shoelaces.

"You think you can beat me?" Elza said.

"The question is do you honestly think you can beat me?"

"Do you want to make a bet on that?"

"Do you think you're that lucky?"

"Do you doubt me?"

"Are you judging me?"

"Fine, then it's a bet." Elza stated.

"What is the prize?"

"How about honor and respect. If I win, you have to honor and respect the fact that I'm better than you. If you win same deal." Elza grinned, rubbing her hands.

"You can't beat the wind." Haruka smiled.

"What makes you think you're the wind?" Elza asked.

Haruka didn't answer; she just got up and walked away towards the rest of the team. Their conversation was over and the bet was on.

Michiru stood on a bridge that overlooked the bay. Ships were constantly coming in and out; men were working on unloading heavy cargo with cranes. Cars rushed past her, blowing her aqua coloured hair around.

The sea stretched out before her, the breeze wafted to her nose. She should be looking for a job but thought against it. She had two months to find one, besides, who would want to hire someone who currently had their arm in a sling?

Her hand was wrapped around the pen, feeling the design of it. She had told herself that she would forget about it, forget about the monster and the dream, to just finish up the painting and leave it alone. Her plan was to throw the pen into the sea.

She closed her eyes, the breeze was cool and the sun was setting. She felt the sea roll calmly in her, Michiru's mind wandering to a different plane. She leaned her right arm against the railing of the bridge, head beginning to hang, her hair blowing in the wind.

Snapping out of her trance, Michiru found herself gripping the pen tight. She couldn't make herself throw it away. It was too hard, what if the pen was apart of her? She bit her lip. She wanted to be free from any type of fate and destiny.

With a mighty swing of her arm Michiru threw the pen into the sea. Michiru was only satisfied when she heard the PLUNK! come from the sea. She was rid of that damned pen. She was free once again, nothing could hold her down, not even fate or destiny.

She woke up to the pen. It was lying right beside her on her night stand, on top of her sketch book. Michiru rubbed her eyes and slowly got up. This was crazy, it wasn't even fair. How did it get there?

Growling in frustration, she picked it up and threw it across the room. She was supposed to be free, she didn't want the damn thing. Michiru began to pace around the room, trying to figure out what she could do.

"Maybe…maybe I could just carry it around with me for a little while, see what it will do." She said aloud.

In a bad mood, Michiru walked over to where the pen now lay. Picking it up carefully she walked back over to her painting. Admiring the almost completed project she let out a little sigh.

What was she? What had she transformed into? Remembering the outfit and her attack, Deep Submerge? Where had those words come from? It felt like some sort of locked away memory escaped at that very moment. What was she?

"Sailor Neptune…" Michiru mouthed.

She clutched her head with her right arm, wanting to slam it onto some hard surface. Anger flowed through her, she had enough with all this, all the confusion and torment. Her transformation brought nothing but disaster into her life. Michiru didn't care if things were becoming clearer, she just wanted to be back to normal everyday Michiru. Normal Michiru was going to be a violinist; Sailor Neptune had to put her dreams on hold.

On hold for what? On hold for saving the goddamn world, on hold fro having to make life altering choices, on hold for deciding who got to live and who got to die, on hold for having visions. Michiru was going to have to put everything on hold.

TBC…