As the full moon rose over the peak of the temple's walls, the last of the scouts arrived. It was another cold night, and Usagi wondered if maybe the Earth was trying to warn everyone of the approaching danger. Usagi shivered in her thin wind breaker that she had grabbed on her way out the door, and a large, warm, black suit jacket was draped across her shoulders. She looked up expecting Seiya, but instead saw Haruka and Michiru smiling down at her.

"Thanks."

"What kind of guardian would we been if we let our future queen catch pneumonia?" Michiru said warmly.

"Won't you get cold?" Usagi looked at Haruka. She was wearing a thin, short sleeved, blue dress shirt and a pair of black dress slacks. She matched Michiru's elegant blue dress perfectly. Michiru has just finished performing at a local theater when Usagi had called. Maybe she should have gone to them for advice about her and Mamoru? They had been together for longer than Usagi had known them. They made a perfect couple, even though they were so different. Usagi sighed.

"I'm Uranus; I can handle a little cold." She said with a half laugh. Usagi didn't get the joke, but smiled anyway.

Setsuma and a sleepy looking Hotaru were the last to arrive since they lived the farthest away. They lived on the outskirts of town with Haruka and Michiru. Usagi wondered if Hotaru missed her father as much as Usagi missed Chibbiusa. Hotaru had to be taken from her father when she was baby because a danger was approaching the Earth that had triggered her to grow rapidly. Even though she was a baby about two years ago, she stood before them as a preteenager. Usagi didn't know what she would have done if she had had to loose her childhood and her family. She realized she was staring at Hotaru and stood.

"OK Usagi, we're all here. What was so important that we had to leave home and come out in the cold darkness?" Rei asked which Usagi thought was funny, since she didn't have to leave home at all.

"We are going to start studying." Usagi announced and was surprised to see the shell-shocked looks of her friend. Seiya was standing with the other stars, he smiled encouragingly at her. She pulled off his faith and continued. "We need to train and study our enemy, take advantage of the fact that we have faced them before. We will need to get in touch with Perez and see if her and her sisters can meet with us. Also we are going to arrange to have a study group everyday. Since there are twelve of us we will divide into four groups of three. The groups will be made up of one inner scout, one outer scout, and either a star or me. One group will actually study so that our grades improve, one group will research battle strategies, analyze every aspect of the last time we fought them, and find out information on this attack, the other groups will fight each other to get practice. We will rotate group tasks daily and who is in the groups weekly. That way we can fight with anyone. I will not lose anyone." Usagi finished strongly. Seiya smiled at her with pride, and Usagi didn't want to analyze how that made her feel, but her heart defiantly fluttered.

No one said anything for what felt like a long time, and Usagi was staring to wonder if everyone hated the idea. Finally Setsuma spoke up. "Usagi. You become your future self more and more every time I see you. I think you have an excellent plan, may I remind everyone of something?"

"Sure." Usagi felt like she was glowing red from such praise from Setsuma.

"The people of the Black Moon Clan are not inherently evil. For those of you who fought them last time, you may remember Prince Demand died to save Sailor Moon. They are being manipulated by Wise Man aka the Dark Phantom. If possible we need to target him before he gathers enough energy. Also, the people who are coming could not be those who we fought back then. Time changes sometimes in strange ways to maintain balance. So be prepared for anything, and anyone."

That warning rang over the scouts, as if it were a prophecy that would be fulfilled. Usagi didn't like the idea that they could be facing people stronger than they were last time, but didn't want to dwell on it. They were going to do everything within their abilities to prepare for this new evil, and that's all they could do. Still Usagi couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the situation, but she just accredited that to the fact that Mamoru should have been there preparing to protect the Earth as his star crystal had done for centuries.

The scout hammered out the last of the details, said their goodbyes, and went their separate ways. Usagi had told Seiya that she had wanted to walk to clear her head. Rei stopped Usagi as she was heading to walk home. "Hey. Have you told Mamoru?"

"Yeah I called him earlier and he said to let him know when we knew more." Talking about Mamoru hurt Usagi, almost like a wound.

Rei frowned. "What happened with you guys? You guys were meant to be together, and now Seiya's back and you are with him instead of your true love."

"Is that what you think? That Seiya came back and I started dating him and Mamo left me?" Usagi didn't know if she was more hurt or more angry.

"That's what it looks like. You and Mamo were perfectly in love then the Stars came to Earth and when you guys got back together you had problems. I'm just saying without Seiya, you and Mamo would still be together and the future would be fine."

Usagi had heard enough. "Yeah and everyone on this planet would be dead or enslaved by Sailor Galaxia. If my relationship suffers because of my Sailor duties, so be it."

Rei raised her voice, obviously getting angry too. "We would have just slept for a while and then woke up. You know like we were meant to."

"How can you be certain that Galaxia was the enemy that we were meant to loose against? I couldn't be certain of that, as far as I knew everyone was dead and I was alone. I had to save the Earth from her; it's what I was destined to do. I didn't know you guys would come back. I was just saving the Earth, like I've been doing since Queen Beryl. How can you, as a Sailor Scout, not get that? You on multiple occasions have sacrificed yourself to protect me. Did you think about who would take care of Grandpa when you did it? No you were saving the Earth because that is what we do." Usagi shook her head and walked away. Rei just stood their like a statue.

Usagi got down the stairs before she began crying, but once one tear escaped, they all did. Heavy sobs rocked her body so hard she had to find a corner to sit down in until the sadness passed. She had lost her future husband, her future daughter, and now it seemed that her friends blamed her for it all. And to top everything else the one enemy that was only defeated because of her future family was coming to destroy the Earth. What was she going to do without Chibbiusa and the second Silver Crystal? In the end it always came down to her. She always stood between the salvation or destruction of the planet. She needed the scouts to get her there, and to help her collect power, but it was her Silver Crystal that only reacted to her that was needed to save the Earth. Yet it seemed that no one remembered that, or that every time she used the power of the Silver Crystal she risked suffering the same fate as her Moon Kingdom mother Queen Serenity.

Usagi stood and looked up at the full moon. Normally it would have comforted her, but tonight it just her remember all the people that has been lost, and weren't coming back. Even ones that she hadn't thought of in a long time and that she hadn't even really lost, like Nephrite. Naru had fallen in love with Nephrite, not knowing that he was a servant of Queen Beryl. In the end, Naru had turned him to good and his first and last act of good had been to save Naru's life from other servants of Queen Beryl. Usagi didn't know if Naru thought of him, but she would if it were her. Usagi sighed felling more depressed than she ever had before and trudged home all the time thinking of all the people she had failed to protect. Before she went sleep she wondered who would save her from Demand now if he tried to take her again. Last time it had been Tuxedo Mask, but somehow she doubted he would come this time. Maybe that was for the best? Every time an enemy had turned him to their said he had made a formidable enemy. Usagi fell into a restless sleep plagued by dreams of losing everyone and the Dark Lady, Chibbiusa's evil self when she was turned to the Black Moon Clan by Wise Man, laughing.