Alone

Haruka didn't understand, why was Michiru acting so weird? What was going on that had made her go from anger to that stoic look... No, no it wasn't stoic. Michiru's stoic was still cold, and her eyes would glare steel daggers. This, this was just so emotionless. As though she were lost in her mind, like Usagi had been...

Usagi...

The name brought a breath of warmth to her face and a pain to her heart. She wanted so bad to go see her, to hold her in her arms, to kiss those soft tasty lips, but Michiru had said not to. Telling her that Usagi was ill at the moment.

Haruka didn't believe a word of it.

But that made her even more confused. Why would Michiru lie over something like that?What was it that had shaken her so badly?

She cursed darkly and glared at the mirror. They needed to hurry, the silence was growing closer, stronger. And still they had not a single talisman. What if they could not find them in time? What if-

She cut herself off from the wicked thoughts. She shouldn't be pondering such things. They would find the talismans, they just had to...

Sighing she laid her head in her hands and saw the flash of white pierce her eyes. The screams of the moon warrior that had mixed in with her own. Only the other senshi's had been filled with terror while hers with agony.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to blow that stupid twit apart with her powers and destroy the on who had hurt her Usagi, her koneko...

But those eyes. The blank look in them when she'd seen her fall to the ground. She'd looked so weak, she didn't look like the coward that had run away. She looked like something else... Someone else...

But who she wasn't sure.

Why were things always so complicated?

She shook her head and stared down at her hands. She would take the three lives to save the world... she had to...


"Usagi," came her mother's voice. She didn't want to hear it though, it was to soft, to sympathetic. She didn't want to hear anything. She just wanted to fall to the floor and cry. But her time for crying was over, having drifted away with the wind, sailed off into the night under the moonlight...

"Usagi we need to talk."

Usagi didn't want to talk. She didn't want any words to leave her lips, or the sounds of her heart might explode from them. She didn't want her mother to hear the agonizing screams that were pounding against her will.

She made no move to reply simply staring off at the horizon. She had school today but she wouldn't be going. She didn't have the energy required to haul herself over there. She could hardly sit up...

"Usagi... Why didn't you tell me?"

Blue eyes still watched the darkness fade from the Earth, watched the shadows cower against whatever object they could find. Clinging to whatever life they had. Hadn't that been what she'd done? Clung to the hope her friends might break her spell?

"I could not,"

A startled breath came from her statement. Had she turned she might have seen those black orbs water in pain, as though she'd been slapped by some invisible hand.

"But you can tell me anything! I love you! I would never turn you away had I known!"

The sapphires narrowed slightly at the words before turning to face the elder woman. Her mother.

"Would you?" the softness in her statement was cold, like the unforgiving death, it caused the woman to shrink away. Where had her baby gone? Where was the loving child she'd raised to care? "Would you still care knowing it was my fault Shingo died? It was my fault my friends faced agony each and everyday. It was my fault the moon kingdom was destroyed, that my past mother gave up her life...

Usagi wasn't sure what was wrong with her. She didn't know why she was acting this way. But the scream she'd heard. The agony in it that had echoed through her. Something in her had died with that scream. She couldn't loose anymore, she couldn't!

She turned back to the window, slowly and robotic were her movements. She still sat in her uniform though she was not Sailor Moon at the moment. She was Usagi, the once carefree girl.

The sound of her mother hitting the floor with sobs caused a small spark of life within her numb body. The woman was hurting because of her, why did everyone get hurt from her?

"My decision has been made," whispered the woman, sadness and worry laced into her words, Usagi turned to look at her in surprise. What was she talking about?

"You are forbidden to fight again, is that clear?"

Usagi looked at her mother as though she'd grown another head, was she crazy? Did she not just hear her? Hadn't she made it clear she would let no other participate in the fighting? And if no one fought the monsters who would protect the people? Who would protect her friends?

"No,"

Anger rose from her mother at the comment, Usagi wasn't sure why. How could she command her to something like that? She had to protect her friends, she couldn't be selfish!

"You will not speak to those Senshi ever again either."

Her eyes widened. What was she talking about? What had gotten into her? Why couldn't she talk to Michiru and Haruka!

"I won't let them get hurt! I can't give up my powers! How will I protect my friends if I do?"

Black orbs glared at her, more ferocious than Beryl had ever managed. She shrunk away from them.

"You will obey me, you are my daughter and as such you must follow my commands. As long as you live under this house you will not participate in these battles."

Usagi blanched. Her mother was dooming them all!

"Then maybe I won't live here!" she screamed, she pulled herself to her feet, prepared to use her powers to escape through the window behind her. A pale hand stopped her. A hand that pulled away the broach from her her bosom.

She screamed as the ribbons swarmed around her and became the form of Usagi once more. She stared up at her mother with confusion and anger and betrayal flowing away in floods. Her clear sapphire eyes wet with emotions and her hands balled into fist. She whispered softly before she fell to the bed in exhaustion, her words almost silent under the golden rays seeping through her room.

"I won't forgive you..."


Michiru stared down at her hands, hands that had once hugged the small, sweet girl, the girl who caused her such pain yet gave her such joy. Hands that were prepared to take away the life of three people so as to save the world from the silence.

She didn't understand, she didn't understand at all! Why hadn't she told her? Why hadn't her young friend told her when she'd learned that they were Sailor Senshi! They would have protected her from the dog if they had!

And those girls, those girls that had glowed with life after the explosion from Sailor Moon- no Usagi! Usagi had glowed once more with life! But who were those strange girls. The ones who looked remarkably like the ones in the picture. Could they be the forgotten friends that haunted the night?

Could they be the forgotten ones?

But if they were, and Sailor Moon's light had awoken them, that meant she had imprisoned them... But why! Why would she wish to imprison those who were obviously her best friends!

The answer came to her easily enough. Ikuko had warned them that Usagi was determined to protect her friends no matter what. But would she really seal them away? Imprison a part of her friends within the cold and unforgiving darkness?

She looked into the mirror at her side, already knowing the answer. It wasn't a question of if she would, the young golden haired woman already had, the question was if she would do it again.

Somehow, she already knew the answer as well.

She shook her head and stood up, things kept getting harder and harder, she really shouldn't have gotten involved with the girl, she had known the price to pay but she'd accepted it. Now though, now she wasn't so sure.

It was all to complicated. Usagi was Sailor Moon, that made a little sense, but she was still missing something. Something important that was the key to pulling apart all this muck of information. But she didn't have it and it would probably be best to separate herself from the younger girl until she was sure what was going on.

But their was huge flaw in that plan as well. Haruka.

What was she going to do about her friend that she loved so dearly? To tell her that the girl she liked so much was the Senshi she despised with such a passion would break her. And she loved Haruka to dearly to allow such things.

But what could she do?

There was nothing at all she could do damn it! She was trapped, not in the dark but in something else. She could help one of her friends with out hurting the other. She would be forced to choose which she wanted more, the sad and lonely child-woman or the hurting whirlwind she loved so very deeply.

She hated the hard choices she was often times gifted with, she hated them with such a passion...

She looked at the rising sun, it was almost time for school, it wouldn't do to be late, they didn't need the attention. They really didn't need the attention...


Purple eyes watched the dim light from the distance, maybe if she hurried she someone would take her home. She was so scared here, she didn't like the darkness, didn't like it at all...

She watched the light flicker wildly and sped her steps before tripping and crashing to the ground. She needed to hurry or the person might leave her, she didn't want to be alone anymore. She didn't want to...

She pulled herself off the dark floor that looked like everything else around her it was always the same, always silent and always nothing. She didn't like it, didn't like it at all.

The purple eyes widened as the light flickered once more and she ran to grab hold of it, trying desperately to touch the soft light in her darkness. She touched a ribbon of pure light before it disappeared and saw blue eyes flash with surprise and concern.

And then it was gone.

She was alone once more.


Mamoru smiled as he noticed the two glass slippers beyond the glass window. He had watched her look at them once, those blue orbs longing with a sigh, she'd moved on and probably forgotten, however he hadn't.

He'd remembered and unconsciously saved the money, even without his memory she'd stalked his mind. He loved her so...

And now, thanks to the bright light, her light, he remembered everything. Those passionate kisses on the moon that felt so sweet, that tasted so good...

He loved her taste, he loved that beautiful body in his arms, it gave him a swelling in his heart. She was so very beautiful. And her eyes, those magnificent eyes that sparkled with joy and life, he loved them as well. She was his princess, she was his in every aspect heart, mind, and soul. And it felt good to own so much of her...

He walked into the store. He'd buy her the glass slippers, the shoes fit for his princess, nothing was to great for his love. He'd buy her the world if he could. She was that beautiful...

"Usako," he whispered, not noticing the small gray pod that entered the shoes and combined with it. He didn't need to. All he wanted to think of was his magnificent princess and her undying love for him.

My lovely Usako.