Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma or Sailor Moon. If I did then Mamoru's alternate form besides Prince Endymion would be something out of Ronin Warriors and not some dressed up clown with a pimp cane.

When Usagi returned to her royal quarters from the altar room she immediately closed the hidden passageway. That corridor and all that it contained was not something that Usagi wanted to have to deal with today or any time in the near future. Part of Usagi wanted to go find Ranma and see what he had found out while the two of them were separated. At the same time however, a part of Usagi wanted to take a closer look at her quarters. Everything in this room and almost everything in the palace was technically her property after all and Usagi was curious about what she had.

In the end Usagi decide to look around her quarters for a bit and then go find Ranma. The first thing that Usagi looked at was the large walk-in closet that was attached to the main bedroom. All the clothes inside the closet had been preserved from the Silver Millennium era due thanks to magic and seemed to only need some relatively small adjustments in order to fit Usagi. The outfits that were in that closet were, to use the cliché, fit for a queen. As Usagi neared the back of the closet she spotted an extremely risqué outfit that she was sure had never left the royal quarters once in had been brought in.

Not wanting to have to go into therapy over picturing her mother in that outfit, Usagi decided to end her exploration of the closet. After emerging from the closet Usagi headed over towards the large vanity and sat down in the chair next to it. There was a small hologram off to the side of embedded mirror of the vanity that showed Queen Serenity and Usagi's father from that time King Priam. As a tear trickled down Usagi's face she pressed a button on the hologram's stand and turned the picture off. Usagi knew that it would just be too hard for her to deal with seeing pictures of past incarnation's parents at the moment.

While still sitting at the vanity, Usagi turned her head and look at a head manqué. The manqué had no real features and held a plain gold crown with three small points. That crown was the casual royal working crown that was only worn by the High Queen or the Princess Regent of the Silver Millennium when not attending a major state function. Usagi picked the crown up with both hands, looked at it for a moment, and then casually twilled it around once in her hands.

Despite the disrespectful manner with which Usagi treated the crown, she was afraid of it. To be more precise Usagi was afraid of the power and responsibility that the crown represented. She stared at the crown for a few minutes and then said with a snort, "Get over it Usagi. You knew ever since it was discovered that you were the moon princess that one day you'd be faced with something like this. Own up to your responsibilities like a real person and don't act like some air headed ninny."

Usagi then striated up her posture, gently placed the crown on her head, and said an ancient Lunarian prayer. "Oh Goddesses of the great heavens grant me thy wisdom and thy beauty. Ancestors, whose blood flows through my veins, guide my feet along my path. To both the celestial and the ancestral I ask for aid. Give help to this unworthy one so that I might not fail in the tasks that have been given to me."

Currently Ranma was in the main palace library sitting on one of the chairs in the room reading a book. At first the Lunarian script had been completely unreadable to Ranma, but Nephelite's memories of how to read Lunarian had quickly resurfaced thus allowing Ranma to using the library. Currently Ranma was reading a book that talked about the palace and all of the various magical systems that had been incorporated into the palace. Prince Nephelite might have been a prodigy back in the Silver Millennium, but he had still been a kid. Many of the things in the old tome were things that Ranma figure would be very useful to know that Prince Nephelite had no knowledge of.

Thanks to his training, Ranma heard the sound of Usagi walking down the hall towards him. Ranma carefully put the book down in his lap when he heard that sound and patiently waited for Usagi to enter the room. When Usagi opened the door to the library and walked in Ranma immediately noticed the crown that Usagi was wearing. Just like Usagi, Ranma knew exactly what Usagi had done by putting on that crown. He then said in a supportive voice, "I guess it's time for us to start accepting our responsibilities eh Sama'shiliadia."

For a split second Usagi was confused by the word Ranma had addressed her by. However, her memories as princess Serenity quickly supplied the definition to that word. Sama'shiliadia was an ancient Lunarian word that was a very dear and intimate way of saying princess regent. That word was only used by a princess regent's inner court or by someone that the princess regent was in love with that she hadn't bedded. Usagi wondered how Ranma could have known that word until she remembered that all titles and their proper context were taught to each member of the upper classes in the Silver Millennium around by a person's fourth birthday. This was done in order to avoid a faux pas.

Usagi slowly walked across the room towards Ranma, leaned down, and gently placed a kiss on his lips. She had a smile on her lips and Usagi then said, "Thank you Ranma. I know that words aren't your strong suit, but it's wonderful to hear how much you care for me every once and awhile." In response to Usagi's complement Ranma's cheeks started to turn pink which just caused Usagi to chuckle a little bit. Once Usagi stopped chuckling she walked around Ranma, wrapped her arms around his neck, and then pleasantly asked, "What are you looking at Ranma?"

While subtly pressing his cheek closer to one of Usagi's arms Ranma said, "Just an old book about the palace. It's actually pretty fascinating when you sit down and read the book. There's a lot here in the palace that I sure neither of us remember and this book explains those things." Ranma then pause for a second to open the book and turn to a particular page. "For example it says here that there is a room over in the Pluto wing of the palace that is some sort of war room."

This little fact interested Usagi because from what she had read in her military books she knew that information can be critical in combat. The war room would probably have a good deal of information and if even a tenth of it was still relevant then that information would have to be secured. Usagi calmly removed her arms from Ranma, walked back into his line of sight, and then said, "Let's go Ranma. I would say that we still have about an hour before we'll need to go home and take care of our 'normal' lives. That gives us plenty of time to go to that war room and at least give it a quick inspection."

Ranma calmly closed the book and while still holding it got up. The duo then left the library and headed towards their new destination. Since Ranma knew where the war room was he was walking about half a foot in front of Usagi. When they got to the door of the war room in the Pluto Wing it suddenly opened up. This surprised Usagi but Ranma calmly explained what had happened, "The door to the war room can magically sense who we are. Due to our active senshi crystals we have automatic clearance to go into this room. Once inside you, as the princess regent, can override the standard security clearance list and make it suit your preferences."

As Usagi and Ranma were walking into the war room Usagi didn't give too much thought to what Ranma had just told her. She knew that it was important and had filed it away in her memory, but for now Usagi felt she had more important matters to focus on. The war room itself was a circular room with the outer rim lined with computer consoles. In the center of the room was a smooth nearly clear crystal stalagmite that was about level with Usagi's chest. To Usagi's surprise the Silver Crystal suddenly left her broach and floated over to the stalagmite.

Usagi was just about to go over and grab the Silver Crystal when Ranma placed a hand on her shoulder. "Relax Usagi nothing's wrong," Ranma said while giving her a friendly smile. "I forgot to mention it to you on our way here, but that crystal stalagmite is specially designed to work with the Silver Crystal. Its purpose is to display information for the queen to use and the Silver Crystal works with the crystal stalagmite to verify that the queen is present in this room. The Silver Crystal is still 'attached' to you as the fact that you are still in your Sailor Moon form shows and the Silver Crystal will return to you when you want to leave the room."

This made sense to Usagi as she knew that any practical government would insure that government secrets would stay secure. Usagi then slowly approached the crystal stalagmite and wondered how she was supposed to use it. One of the biggest things that Usagi was hoping to learn from the crystal once she figured out how to use it was what kind of information was stored on the Sailor Scouts.

Suddenly the Silver Crystal light up and the light filled the entire war room forcing the duo to close their eyes. When Usagi and Ranma opened their eyes they were greeted by holographic images of the Sailor Scouts in uniform along with holographic images of themselves in uniform. The holographic images were standing in a circle surround the duo with Ranma's holographic form standing slightly behind and two the right of Sailor Jupiter.

As Usagi looked at the images of her friends and comrades her eyes stopped on Sailor Saturn's image. Unlike the other Sailor Scouts whose faces were crystal clear, Sailor Saturn's face was blurry. In fact Usagi couldn't even say what the color of Sailor Saturn's hair was or even the style it was done in. Usagi then turned to Ranma and said, "Uh Ranma, can you see Sailor Saturn's face or is it burry for you as well?"

Ranma took a step closer to the image of Sailor Saturn, gave it a good hard glance, and then shook his head. He then turned to face Usagi and said, "I can't see her face as well Usagi. Maybe its part of the senshi magic that's causing us to not be able to see her face? After all, people can't see our faces due to our senshi magic until they either catch us transforming or we tell them who we are."

Usagi nodded her head as she listened to Ranma explain his little theory. However, even though Usagi could understand Ranma's theory she wasn't happy at it. She wanted to know who Sailor Saturn was and she wanted to know now. Even if Sailor Saturn was still unawake, and this was highly likely, Usagi wanted to at least know who Sailor Saturn was. If she knew who Sailor Saturn was then the other Sailor Scouts could either start to train Saturn or protect her. After all, it wasn't like a civilian Sailor Saturn could protect herself from any potential enemies.

The crystal stalagmite sensed Usagi's thoughts about civilian and Saturn. Quickly responding as it was programmed the crystal suddenly gave off a flash of light. Due to fact that Usagi and Ranma were standing with their backs to the stalagmite they weren't blinded this time. However, they were completely shocked when they saw Sailor Saturn's image change into Hotaru Saotome's image.

Up on the roof of the roof of Mousse's restaurant while his clone's worked below, the original Mousse was busy training Minako. Today Mousse was going over some intermediate sword katas. When he had first started to train Minako Mousse had quickly determined that unarmed combat was not her specialty. Sure Minako had a nasty jump kick and a pretty good left hook, but she just couldn't move past being a brawler.

However, armed combat was an entirely different story for Minako. Mousse had discovered this on the first day of training when he had gone downstairs to check on something in the kitchen and had accidentally left a bokken near Minako. When Mousse had returned to check on Minako he was greeted to the sight of Minako doing a very basic kata with the bokken. Minako's face had at the time shown that she was a little unsure about what she was doing, but her body seemed to respond to the weapon instinctively.

After Mousse had observed Minako for a few minutes he had revealed that he had been watching her practice. Since that day Mousse had trained Minako almost solely in swordsmanship. He had mixed in a little strength and stamina training as well, but that was mainly to help Minako use her growing swordsmanship to its fullest capacity. And Minako's swordsmanship was growing at an almost unbelievable rate since she had started learning from Mousse.

In fact, Minako's growth was so great that it was starting to draw Mousse's suspicions. Oh Mousse fully believed Minako when she said that she never had any swordsmanship lessons in her life when he had discreetly asked her if she had ever had any training. However, Mousse also knew that people don't get that good with a weapon so quickly after starting to learn. Not even Ranma had a learning curve that high when it came to Minako learning swordsmanship.

There were several possibilities that could explain why Minako had so much innate skill with a blade. Of the various possibilities Mousse knew about and given the type of person that Minako was, Mousse was personally leaning towards reincarnation. In the Amazon's 3000 year history there were a few cases of 'old souls' appearing. Old soul was a term used by the Amazons to describe a reincarnated person. From what Mousse could recall, old souls seemed to carry with them some skill from their previous incarnation into their new life.

To test his hypothesis, Mousse had thrown in several beginning katas from very different styles. Minako was able to quickly master those katas from styles that focused on slashing at an opponent, but she had an only slightly above average learning curve for styles that were built around hacking or stabbing an opponent. Now this didn't mean that Minako had to be an old soul, but Mousse knew it definitely increased the odds of her being one.

In the end of course whither Minako was or wasn't an old soul did not really matter to Mousse. Minako was his student and she was also his friend. Mousse had never had many friends back in the Amazon village and there was no way that he going to risk loosing one just because of something that might not actually be. Besides, it wasn't as if being an old soul was a bad thing. According to what Mousse remembered from the tribe's lore mistress, old souls were perfectly normal people except for those areas that overlapped from their past life in which they typically excelled.

With a small shake of his head Mousse ended his musings and turned his attention back on Minako. Currently she was going through the final moves of the kata that Mousse had told her to do. Mousse quickly focused in on different parts of Minako's body, made sure that her muscles were moving how they were supposed to, and then moved on to the next part of her. Just after Minako finished the last move in the kata Mousse spoke. "Very good Minako, you did very well today. Tomorrow we will start sparing if you feel up to it. If you don't feel up to it then we just have to go over the katas you know until you are confident enough in your abilities so that we can move to the next step."

Minako nodded her head and then said as she brushed a stray hair back into place, "Starting to spar sounds like a good idea to me. After all I'm not doing all of this to be some sort of poster girl in a kendo hobbyist's magazine." This comment gave Mousse the image of Kuno drooling over a large poster of Minako in a kendo outfit. For some strange reason that image gave Mousse the sudden urge to go hit Kuno.

As Minako was placing her bokken into a traveling case she looked up at Mousse. She then paused for a moment as if considering something and then said, "Uh Mousse? I was wondering about something." Once Minako had Mousse's attention she continued on, "You see my school is having a dance in about a week or so and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind going with me to the dance. All of my friends are going to the dance and I promised them that I'd show up, but I don't particularly want to go to the dance by myself even though I'm sure that there will be many people going by themselves. I hope you don't take offense at this Mousse, but you're the only decent boy my age that I know who isn't going to the dance with their girlfriend. The other guys that I know of at school would pretty much expect me to be an air-headed manikin and I'd rather go alone then go with one of them."

Mousse sat where he was, placed his right hand under his chin, and thought about Minako's question. After a moment Mousse removed his hand and said, "Alright Minako, I'll go with you to the dance. Who knows, it might be fun to just be a regular teen for a bit."

A bright smile appeared on Minako's face when she heard Mousse's response. Minako had to walk by Mousse in order to get to the door and when she did she gave him a friendly hug. She then gave him a small peck on the cheek, winked at him, and promptly left the roof. Mousse just stood where he was for a few minutes as if he was trying to process what had just happened. He then shrugged and said, "Wasn't expecting that. But then, what do I know about women."

Rei had just finished sweeping the steps from the shrine to the sidewalk and with her broom still in her hand she walked over to the mailbox. After taking the mail out of the mailbox and putting it under her arm Rei headed up the stairs. As soon as Rei reached her house she leaned her broom on the wall and started to look at the mail.

About 90 of the mail was junk mail as usual with a few thank-you letters from past visitors to the shrine. However, there was one small wrapped package that caught Rei's attention. The package was wrapped in non-descript brown packaging paper, but the wrapping of the package was sealed with a wax seal of the Musk Dynasty. Immediately Rei decided that the package must be for Herb and so she headed over to the 'backyard' of the shrine to find Herb.

When Rei got to the part of the shrine grounds were Herb was at she stopped and stared. Herb was in the middle of doing one handed handstand pushups on a small wooden post. After watching Herb for a minute and admiring how he looked, Rei gave a polite cough to get Herb's attention. Rei then politely said after she saw that she had gotten Herb's attention, "Sorry for disrupting you Herb, but I have a letter here that I'm pretty sure is for you."

Herb pushed himself off of the post with his one hand, back flipped, and then landed about two feet away from the post facing Rei. Even though Rei knew that she shouldn't be surprised by such a display of super-human abilities from Herb, she was still amazed at what he had just done. Rei then silently walked over to Herb and handed the package over. He then broke the seal on the package and tore off the wrapping.

Inside the package were a folded letter and a small wooden box. Herb carefully read the letter and then carefully folded the letter back up. Once the letter was folded up again Herb looked over at Rei. Upon seeing the curious look on her face Herb sighed and said, "It's a letter from my father. The High Council of the Musk Dynasty along with my father has apparently decided to grant the title of Warlord to Ranma Saotome. Among the Musk, the title of Warlord has similar connotations as the Japanese title of Shogun. The two offices aren't exactly the same, but they are very similar. Inside this box is a pendant that I'm supposed to give to Ranma to show his new status as the Musk Warlord."

Rei nodded her head as she listened to what Herb was telling her. Except for Usagi and possibly Setsuna, Rei knew the most about the situation between Ranma and the Musk people. However, Rei didn't know how Herb personally was taking the situation. In a surprisingly soft manner Rei quietly asked, "What do you think Herb? Are you alright with the council's decision? How do you feel about Ranma having that much power among your people?"

While Herb might not be used to someone trying to comfort him over a possibly troubling situation, he was certainly able to appreciate what Rei was trying to do by asking him those question. Since Herb knew that Rei most likely wouldn't let him go without getting answers to her questions he calmly started to reply. "To be perfectly honest, I've been expecting that something would be done once news of Nephelite's rebirth reached the tribe ever since I found out about Ranma's past incarnation. Making Ranma the Warlord is probably the least disruptive choice for the Musk Dynasty."

Usagi and Ranma were walking down the street towards Usagi's house in silence. After the revelation of who Sailor Saturn was, the two of them had mutually and subconsciously decided to end their visit to the Moon. Surprisingly the street that they were walking on was completely empty. The two of them had been traveling in silence since they had found out about Saturn, but Usagi decided to break the silence as they turned around a corner. "Ranma," Usagi started to say in a quiet manner, "What are we going to do about Saturn? She is your sister after all. Do we tell her or what?"

Ranma paused in mid-step when he heard Usagi's question. He then shook his head and said, "I don't know Usagi. If she was some stranger or even someone our age that we knew like your acquaintance Naru everything would be straightforward. But instead, she's my little sis! How am I supposed to act? How would you act Usagi if you had found out that Shingo was in a similar situation?"

Trying to remove some of Ranma's building anger and moodiness Usagi said, "Well if I Shingo had turned out to be Saturn I would probably order a whole bunch of instant Nyannichuan. After all, I wouldn't want him to be mortified every time he had to transform." When Usagi turned to look at Ranma's face she saw him shooting her a dead-pan look. She then put her hands up in a placating manner and said, "Just trying to lighten your mood Ranma."

Usagi then sighed and spoke in a more somber manner. "Truthfully Ranma, I don't know what I'd do if I found Shingo in the kind of situation that Hotaru's in. While I don't always get along with Shingo, I love him deeply and don't want to see him get harmed. And if there is one thing that Hotaru's new status will insure, it's that there is a very high chance of her getting seriously hurt."

While he was nodding his head Ranma solemnly said, "That's exactly it Usagi. I don't want to see Hotaru hurt and I know that's exactly what would happen if she was to take up the mantle of Saturn. However," Ranma paused for a second and his voice got a resigned tone when he continued on. "I also know that not telling Hotaru would hurt both her and everyone else. Like it or not, the world will most likely need Saturn one day when some new threat decides to rear its head. If I don't train Hotaru now, how can I face myself later in life if she gets crippled or killed because she wasn't trained enough?"

"When you put it like that Ranma, there's really only one thing you can do." Usagi softly said while wrapping her arm around Ranma. "Tell Auntie Nodoka about Saturn and have Hotaru join in our martial arts lessons. That way Hotaru will at least have some training under her belt before she joins the team. Martial Arts training definitely helped you out when you joined the gang."

About five minutes after Ranma and Usagi had finished talking about Hotaru they reached Usagi's house. Since Ranma wanted to get home because his mother would be serving dinner in half an hour, he gave Usagi a quick goodbye kiss and headed home. Usagi stood at her doorstep politely waving goodbye to Ranma until he disappeared around the corner and then she went inside. She then took her shoes off and headed up to her room so that she could take care of some homework that she needed to do. As Usagi was walking up the stairs she spotted her parents in the kitchen and Usagi cheerfully said, "Hi Mom, Hi Dad."

Kenji, who had been sitting at the dinning table while Ikuko worked on preparing part of dinner, turned to face Usagi. He then gave Usagi a firm fatherly look and said in a questioning and also loving tone, "And where have you been Usagi? School was over two hours ago."

Usagi didn't miss a beat and cheerfully said, "I was hanging out at the park with Ranma Dad. After hanging out at the park for about an hour and a half we decided to take the long way to here. We stayed away from 29th Street just like you always tell me."

Ikuko then entered the conversation saying, "That's nice Usagi. Just so you know supper will be in about 40 minutes." Usagi then nodded her head and headed up the stairs to take care of her schoolwork. Once Usagi was out of hearing range, Ikuko turned to face Kenji with her hands on her hips. Ikuko then said in a scolding tone, "What's with trying to give Usagi the third degree dear? You never use to do this when Usagi would come home after hanging out with her friends."

Kenji then calmly said, "True, but that was when she just hung out with friends like that girl Naru or any of her other female friends. It's a completely different thing when she is hanging out with a boy."

"Kenji dear," Ikuko said in a very sweet manner which made Kenji realize that he was in the dog house. "Why does it make any difference if Usagi comes home at this time, which might I remind you is still within her curfew, after spending time with her boyfriend verses her other friends? Would it have made you feel any better if Ranma had spent the entire time in his cursed form?"

Ikuko then sighed and said in a softer tone, "I know you don't like the fact that Usagi is dating dear. There are times I occasionally don't like to think about the fact that my little girl has a boyfriend. However, we have to remember that Usagi's isn't a little girl anymore and that she is at the age where she is interested in things like boys. At least you and I can take some comfort in the fact that Usagi is interested in a decent young man who treats her with respect."

Knowing that his wife had him, Kenji let his shoulders slump and then he leaned back into his chair. "It's not fair Ikuko," Kenji said, "it feels like only yesterday that Usagi was sitting on my lap with a children's beginner book in that cute little pink dress that your mother made for her asking me to help her read the kanji."

There was a soft smile on Ikuko's face as she looked over at Kenji and the utterly confused look on his face. Ikuko then walked over to where Kenji was sitting and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She then said in a soft and comforting manner, "I know dear, I know."