WARNING: Animal abuse

When morning came, the girls were alarmed. Gracie is not in bed at first. Thankfully, they found Gracie sitting at the Dining Hall table dressed in a dark green shirt, black jacket, grey pants, dark red slippers, and no bow in her hair, not colors Sailor Venus is known for, but what is most shocking is she cut her hair to her shoulders! This is unnatural as Gracie had wanted her hair to grow out. Also, Gracie's expression seemed annoyed.

"About time you got up! I want to eat, and the stupid cooks won't make anything until the queen shows up!" Gracie snapped before the others could even greet her. 'Good morning.'

"Good morning to you too." Crystal's expression darkened to match Gracie's.

"There's nothing good about this morning!" Gracie yelled.

"Gracie? What happened to your hair?" Chibiusa asked, puzzled and offended Gracie would speak like that.

"So, I'm trying out a new hairstyle. Do you have a problem with that?" Gracie spat irritably.

"No, but you seem to have a serious attitude problem, firefly." Christen, the best at handling spiteful people, insulted Gracie with the nickname firefly, relating to her hair color.

"Last I recall, your the one with the attitude problem and, if you cut all that oily crap off your head, you might look better too...NOT!" Gracie joked cruelly.

"I've heard enough out of you!" Ariel grabbed Gracie's shirtfront and lifted her in the air. "Either show some respect or leave!"

"I'd rather jump off a cliff than show anybody here respect," Gracie growled.

"Then you can eat outside." Ariel dumped Gracie's body on the cold, hard, snow-covered front steps.

Gracie screamed and sobbed until Minako let her back in.

"Took you long enough." Gracie shivered.

"Sorry, sweetie. I didn't know what happened." Minako apologized.

"I'm going to take a hot shower..." Gracie grumbled as she set off down the hall.

Looking at her from the back, Minako noticed Gracie's short hair and worried! As the other original Sailor Senshi passed Gracie, they said, "Good morning," but Gracie only mumbled in response and picked up her pace, hoping to avoid the king and queen. Sadly, she just did.

"What's her problem?" Rei questioned.

"Beats me," Makoto responded.

"She might just be having a rough morning." Ami surmised, and that was the accepted explanation, at least, for that morning.

"From the look on her face and her hair, a really rough morning." Haruka agreed.

Back in the Dining Hall, the girls continued to muse over why Gracie is acting so hateful and ugly. A rough morning is one thing, but this just was not like Gracie at all. If she wanted to wear darker clothes, that is understandable; darker clothes do keep you warmer. Cut her hair? Fine, that is her decision.

In the end, the girls could not do anything...

"YEOWCH!" In the afternoon, Diana's cry could be heard throughout the palace!

"Diana, hang on. We're on the way!" Chibiusa called as the girls rushed to where they were sure Diana's pained yowl came from. Racing to the spot, the girls are horrified to see Gracie yanking Diana's tail with one hand and her tongue with the other!

"You need to be taught to die quietly, cat!" Gracie snarled.

Seeing red, Chibiusa punched Gracie in the face, catching Diana! "Are you OK, Diana?!"

"My tail and tongue hurt..." Diana sobbed, but she was not seriously injured, just frightened.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" As rare as it was for Crystal to boom her voice, she would not stand neglect or abuse when it came to animals!

Scowling, Gracie wiped a spot of blood from the side of her mouth, "I was playing!"

"That's not playing!" Alexis seethed with barely restrained rage.

"If any of us catch you doing anything like that again, I don't care if a teammate or not, we will punish you!" Chibiusa threatened as the girls decided to round up the cats to protect them.

In the late afternoon, Jewel always came to spend some time with friends, girls her own age.

"Greetings, Dark Kingdom Princess Jewel." A male guard allowed Jewel access into the Crystal Palace.

Though not liking being addressed as such, Jewel smiled and nodded politely in response, and walked inside. As beautiful as the palace is, its identical walls are disorientating! So, Chibiusa and the girls always met her halfway. When Gracie joined them, she shouted, "Look, it's Beryl 2.0!"

Jewel cringed as the very thought of doing the things her mother did make her feel sick to her stomach! Selina beeped in alarm, and Elizabeth shifted into Queen Beryl, but something about Gracie's drastically different aura kept her from speaking!

"How dare you!" Emily barked at Gracie.

"Gracie, stay away from us," Trisha said coldly and grabbed Jewel's hand to lead her away with the other girls, minus Gracie, of course, following.

In Chibiusa's bedroom, after explaining how Gracie had been acting, Jewel could not think of any reason why Gracie would say or do such heinous things.

"A beautiful, loving girl like Gracie? Our Neo-Sailor Venus, maybe even destined to be another Sailor V, speaking ill of her friends and torturing animals doesn't sound like her at all." While Jewel knew Gracie COULD do these things (they all could), she never WOULD.

If Jewel, who can sense and use magic, can not figure out what is wrong with Gracie, who can? That night, Crystal had gone out to pick up some odds and ends and was heading back when a swarm of bats attacked her! Ducking into a nearby building to store her goods and catch her breath so she could transform, Neo-Sailor Mercury burst out, heading straight toward the bats, and cried, "Ice Freeze!" Luckily, Neo-Mercury had learned how to freeze multiple enemies! Leaving the frozen bat-sicles behind, Neo-Mercury grabbed her stuff and booked it until she encountered something else: A fox!

Neo-Mercury thought it would run when it saw her, but it couched down as if to hide, which is normal. So, she thought of just side-stepping it, but as she tried to pass, it lunged at her! With arms full of supplies, nowhere to hide, and seconds away from claws and teeth, Crystal screamed. Amazingly, the fox just pinned her to the ground and locked eyes with her! Crystal opened her mouth to use Ice Freeze again, but it seemed like her voice froze in her throat, and she could not make a sound!

As Crystal fell into the same trance-like state as Gracie, the fox got off her and streaked away. Slowly, Crystal gathered her groceries back up, feeling light-headed. Crystal supposed she was still in a bit of shock from the encounter, so she took a minute to compose herself before continuing. As Crystal walked, she found herself not liking the origin of her name for no particular reason, and the more support she saw of Crystal Tokyo, the more cold-hearted she felt. Suddenly, a smile crossed her lips, and she knew she and Gracie had A LOT more to talk about now...