Chapter 2! I don't really have much to say about this one. Pluto will appear in the next...and in the next few chapters: meeting fate, seeing the future, and other surprises.

"Wake up, Usagi." Ikuko said as she did every morning. This time though, there was no answering groan. Frowning, Ikuko pressed open her daughter's door. The bed was empty. 'Odd.' she thought, 'Usa must have already left for school.' As she left the room, she didn't notice the school uniform innocently hanging on the closet door.

"Tsukino." Haruna-sensei's bored voice called role, not really expecting an answer. Until the girl came running in ten minutes after class started, as always.

At fifteen minutes after, Haruna found her eyes flicking to the door every few seconds. Where was that girl? Even though she was late everyday, she was like clockwork. Her routine was to be there ten minutes late, so why wasn't she?

Because Haruna's eyes were focused on the door, she missed the glance exchanged between Usagi's friends. The tall girl wearing her old school's uniform scribbled something on a piece of paper before folding it into an airplane. When Haruna stuck her head out the door to see if she could locate her missing student, Makoto quickly flicked her wrist, sending the airplane straight to the blue haired genius. It looped slightly before landing right at Ami's feet. Ami frowned at her friend, clearly upset at this blatant breaking of the rules, nonetheless, she pushed her pen off the desk, and when she reached down for the pen, she palmed the airplane. Quickly, she unfolded it from behind her usual stack of books.

'Where is she? Youma, do you think?'

Ami looked at Makoto who was facing forward, but was looking at her out of the corner of her eyes. 'No.' Ami mouthed, 'Communicator.'

"Mizuno-san." Haruna's voice lashed through the silent classroom. Ami meeped in surprise, and the class burst into laughter, causing the bluenette to turn bright red. Haruna ignored this, and waving a piece of paper said, "Would you be so kind as to take the roll to the front office?"

Ami bowed, her hair swinging forward to cover her flaming cheeks for a moment. She kept her head ducked as she walked rather briskly from the room.

Makoto waited a few minutes before thrusting her fist in the air.

"Yes, Kino-san?"

"Can I go to the restroom?"

"Can it wait?"

When the girl shrugged negatively, Haruna shook her head, waving Makoto to the door. "Whatever. Just go."

Makoto sauntered from the room, her much longer legs easily catching up with Ami. "So, no youma attack?"

"No, she'd call us if there was."

Nodding her agreement, Makoto thought for a moment, trying to remember the night before's battle. "Was she injured last night?"

"Not that I am aware of."

They walked in silence for a few feet, before Makoto suggested uneasily, "Maybe she's just sick."

"That is a possibility." Ami acknowledged not indicating any thought on the matter, trying to hide her discomfort as well. "But, we'll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to check on her. Remember, Luna has that intensive training session scheduled tonight."

"Yeah." Makoto laughed, "I'd hate to be Usagi if she misses that."

With a small nod, Makoto split from Ami's side, and made her way into the bathroom, to wait an acceptable amount of time before returning to the classroom.

It was vacuuming day at the Tsukino household. Ikuko unplugged the answering machine to plug in her vacuum. Her music was blasting so loud so as to be heard over the sounds of the vacuum. In all this noise, a phone ringing didn't stand a chance of being heard. She never got the message that her daughter had not shown up at school.

The intern who had made the call shook her head at the continuous ringing. On the fifteenth ring, she finally hung up the phone and wrote herself a note to call back later. By the time lunch rolled around, it was a note and action she had forgotten. Lunch, where she succeeded in knocking a full can of Pepsi over and soaking all the papers on her desk. 'At least there was nothing important on here.' she thought to herself as she scooped the disintegrating pieces into the waste basket.

Two full days passed before anyone knew Usagi was missing.

A blond girl with a big red bow was uncharacteristically solemn as she rang the doorbell. Something was not right. None of the Senshi had heard from Usagi in the past forty eight hours. It was unthinkable. If she didn't see them through out the day, Usagi could be counted on to call at least one of them just to "catch up".

When she heard the sound of the knob turning, Minako pasted a smile on her face. "Hi, is Usagi here?"

Ikuko frowned, "Sorry, Minako, I haven't seen her since the night before last. You had your sleepover, right?"

"Yes of course!" Minako flashed her a mega-watt smile, trying to hide the feeling of her heart plummeting, "But, we got separated at school, and I guess she must have gone straight to the shrine, without me. I know I'll find her there. See you later!"

"Wait, Minako. Would you be a dear, and tell her to call home before too long?"

"Of course!" Minako called, skipping off the porch. When she heard the door close, she stopped skipping and a weary look crossed her face.

Somebody was pounding on his door, and it wasn't Usako. The blows were way too angry sounding. Usako was impatient, not violent.

Mamoru groaned, throwing down his textbook. Between unwanted thoughts of Usagi, regrets, second guessing, and visitors (Chibi-Usa was already at his table eating), he wasn't getting any studying done. He stretched his arms over his shoulders, popping his spine as he walked over to the door.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming." he muttered, knowing full well that they couldn't possibly hear him over the racket they were making.

"What?" he snarled, opening the door.

Rei gave him as good a glare as she got before pushing past him, leading in Minako, Makoto, and Ami. Only the last of whom whispered a small apology. He very nearly slammed his door shut, the only reason he could think of for these four to be here was that they were staging some sort of intervention. It was hard enough keeping away from Usagi when his whole body and soul urged him to go to her, but to have her friends try and convince him, that was going to make the whole thing that much more difficult. He loved Usagi, that is exactly why he had to keep away from her. But, with their convincing, he was worried that his already weakening resolve would disappear completely, leaving Usagi open for attack.

"What do you want?" He asked none too pleasantly.

Rei huffed, looking as though she were about to breathe flames, but Minako put her hand on her shoulder, and shook her infinitesimally.

Shy Ami was the one to ask in a tone that brooked no refusal, "Is Usagi here?"

Mamoru shrugged, "Why would she be here? We broke up, remember?"

"Oh yes," Rei hissed, "I remember something about that. Something about you breaking her heart, even after all she has done for you. All she gave up for..." Rei stuttered to a halt, a look of horror on her face, "Oh my God! You don't think she did a Serenity do you?"

Makoto and Minako looked aghast, but Ami shook her head, "She is way too logical for that."

The other three Senshi turned their heads to look at her so fast they were in danger of whiplash. "Logical?" Makoto asked startled.

Ami nodded, "Logical. We all know her stupidity is a facade she puts on for the rest of the world. To avoid pressure. Let's face it, she had so much pressure last time around, is it any wonder that she took pains (even if they were subconscious) to avoid as much as possible? Even the small amount that getting good grades would cause?"

Rei snorted, "We all had pressures, but do you see any of us slacking?" Then she paused and looked at both Minako and Makoto who were attempting to whistle innocently. "Never mind."

Mamoru rubbed his forehead when suddenly, what Rei had meant hit him, "Why on earth would you think Usagi would kill herself?"

Makoto scuffed her toe, "Because she's kinda, sorta missing?"

"Missing." He repeated stupefied, "What do you mean, she's missing?"

Before anyone could answer, a slight scratching sound came from his balcony door. Ami went over to let in two very irritated looking cats. The black one shook the rain from her fur before padding into the room. "No sign at the arcade. She hasn't put a new score on Sailor V for four days. I overheard another customer asking about her, evidently he missed her cheer, anyway, Motoki said that he hadn't seen her in those same four days."

Mamoru shook his head, trying to process what his mind was trying to force him to understand. "What's going on?"

"Mamoru," Minako said gently, "No one has seen her for the past two days."

He felt his heart sinking into his stomach. How was it possible that no one had seen her? He slid down into the couch, his head in his hands. Why? Staying away from her was supposed to protect her.

He didn't look up to see who had put their hand on his shoulder. It wouldn't be who he needed it to be. It wouldn't be her.

"Don't act like you care!" Rei shouted. "Don't you dare. You can't just care about her physical well-being and ignore her emotional. Her soul was dying, thanks to you! I know Usagi, she can bounce back from everything, except losing you. She would have grown cold, and our happy-go-lucky princess would be gone. And it would all be your fault. So, don't you dare act crushed!"

"Rei." Minako said softly, and Mamoru could tell from she was the one clasping his shoulder.

He looked up, not caring that they could see the anguished look on his face. "No. Usa never needed me. She is tenacious and brave. She doesn't let stuff get to her."

"Mamoru, look at me." Minako commanded in her Venus voice. He obliged and she hissed in shock. Her eyes tearing at the pure emotion in his gaze. "You love her still." she whispered. "But, why would you lie?"

He closed his eyes and counted to five in his head before saying, "No, I don't. I'm...fond of her, and that's it."

Minako looked at her friends, at a loss. But, Makoto nodded as though something made sense. "Who threatened her?"

His eyes snapped open, seeking the Senshi of lightning's gaze. There was understanding and even acceptance in their depths, and he knew he couldn't lie. Not anymore. Hell, even if he did, it wouldn't convince anyone. Not when he was feeling so distraught. Not when he knew his face was showing every sense of dread and depression that he was feeling.

"Did Usako tell you that before any of this started, I had dreams of Princess Serenity begging for me to find the Ginzuishou?" Seeing their blank looks, he added, "I would guess she didn't tell you that I have a small amount of psychic ability, either?" When they slowly shook their heads, he smiled slightly, and endeared resignation entered his tone. "That's Usako for you. Regardless, last week, I began having dreams of our wedding, but the world would crumble and a voice told me to stay away from her if I valued her life. At first, I didn't pay any attention to it. But, it came more often, and I realized that I wasn't willing to gamble Usako. Not for my own selfish desires."

He fell silent and no one spoke for a long moment. Until Ami shifted and their eyes all turned to her, "Mamoru, how do you know where our battles are? No one has to call you, and yet you are almost always there."

Mamoru tilted his head slightly, "At first, my transformations were triggered by Usako's, but when I realized I was Tuxedo Kamen, it was more like a radar telling me she was in danger and how to get to her. Recently, I've been finding myself picking up traces of her emotions, why?"

Ami nodded as though he had confirmed a long held hypothesis. "Can you feel her now?"

Hope inflated in the room. At least, until Mamoru frowned, "No. Not a trace."

Luna sighed, "Then she really has been stolen, hasn't she?" Turning her glowing gaze to Mamoru, "I'm not going to berate you on how stupid you were to believe a dream, but why didn't you feel it? Why didn't you sense she was in danger?"

He shifted uncomfortably, "I've been blocking her rather hard this week. I just happened to be in the park when the youma attacked. And, now that I think about it, I didn't feel more than a twinge before I got to it."

Artemis hissed, his back arching, "How the hell were you going to get to other battles if you didn't even know if they were going on? That was very stupid, Mamoru, very stupid."

Minako covered Artemis' mouth before asking, "But, why can't you feel her now?"

Mamoru's eyes widened. No matter how hard he had blocked, that shouldn't affect his ability to sense her. In fact, even when blocking, he usually felt her like a warm pressure against his mind's wall, but now...nothing.

He met her eyes and his voice had a fearful undertone when he whispered, "I don't know."