MoonDragon: -Avoids your gaze and kicks at the ground ashamed- Um... hi. Sooo, I haven't updated in a long time. Yes, I realize that. This time I don't exactly have any good excuses though, sadly enough. I was just really lazy and had severe writer's block. I wish I could have had a funner block like a colorful building one, but you can't always get what you want. Last Sunday I was really typing and was in the mood to finish, but then my friend called me up and asked to hang out. Well, I like to have a life like you all sometimes so I stopped and we did some stuff together. Then the mood was gone and didn't come back until today. Sorry it's sooo late, my bad, really. From now on just don't trust me when I say I'll get them on here. Just know that I'll at least try to get it up once a week. Please review if you don't already hate me and are starting to visually stab me in the jaw, I'd appreciate it.

If you read carefully you'll notice that Chibiusa slips up a few times and it's showing that she's not exactly from the same time as Usagi. I did that on purpose to show that even though she's mature for a child, she still is a child and makes mistakes.

Unspoken Memories

Chapter 15

For awhile Sailor Moon just stared blankly at the child claiming to have the same name as herself. It just couldn't be true and she knew it. Her parents didn't have any brothers or sisters so that left out the possibility of her being a cousin. Maybe there were others out there with the same last name, but they just weren't related to her. It was possible but highly unlikely. Chibi Moon in her civilian form lowered her hands from her mouth and grinned sheepishly as if giving an apology.

"My name really is Usagi, though," she confirmed trying to lift all suspicion. Despite the fact that might indeed be her name, the golden haired teen had something more important nagging at her.

"How did you… know my name?" she questioned. Besides Luna and Artemis, and she supposed Nokemono knew who she was as well, no one else should come across that knowledge. It seemed unthinkable that this random mini-senshi could know. She played with the end of her golden skirt in nervousness. Little kids could easily let information like that slip in public, and it would be disastrous if that happened. Could she be trusted to keep a secret or would she have to resort to Moon Dust again?

'Usagi' seemed to be in thought wondering how to approach the answer, then, coming across an idea, smiled in revelation. To the genuine Usagi, though, the pause for the answer just raised her suspicion even further.

"After you passed out you transformed back into your civilian form. It was pretty easy to tell who you were with some research." Usagi pondered over that and came to a conclusion that it could, and possibly was, the truth. If someone knew what she looked like it would hardily be challenging to match a face with a name. All they would have to do was get on the internet or get a yearbook from her school. There were probably other methods, but that wasn't really something to ponder on at the moment. Then, remembering with her comment of 'after you passed out,' she had another question shoving its way impatiently to the front of the line.

"Well, fine, you can explain that one, but why on Earth would you take me over to Mamoru-kun's apartment?! Do you even know him, because he said he's never seen you in his life! Why not just take me to a doctor?"

"I'm not stupid," the girl declared, eyebrows slanted just slightly assuming that Sailor Moon was belittling her intelligence. "I actually thought about where to take you before deciding on his place! Even though he's really skilled, right now he's still a student and doesn't have access to all of the equipment in hospitals. What if I took you there instead and they took a blood test? You're DNA isn't the same as regular humans and you know it! You'd be all over the news and your identity might've been revealed. I took you to him because he's so good and I knew he'd take care of you. So I think you should thank me!"

'I… I didn't even think of that!' Usagi exploded in a panic. 'Of course they might've taken a blood test! Why wouldn't they? There's certainly no reason not to. My blood is definitely different than others… as much as I hate to admit it… Wow, if she did that it could've ended up horribly!' In truth, Usagi was a bit peeved that this kid basically scolded her on her thoughtlessness, but she did owe 'Usagi' a lot. She wasn't ungrateful enough to not acknowledge all that she's done for her.

"Th-thank you," she said bowing in her seat lightly. The child beamed at the words and smiled brightly kicking her feet in the air idly.

"Yep!" she replied cheerfully. "I wasn't just going to leave you there and let someone else come along and take you to the hospital. I had to do something. Besides, half the time those doctors don't even know what they're doing! They'd probably have an inexperienced new guy working on you, and he'd start stitching up your back and sew it up all wrong."

She ranted on for quite awhile and Usagi found herself laughing. 'This kid's got some flare in her.'

"You don't like the doctors, huh?" the silver warrior asked feeling more comfortable now even in her uniform. It was strangely… amusing talking to her. 'Usagi' scoffed and made a fist as if threatening doctors everywhere.

"Of course not! All they do is tell you that you're sick and give you shots! Shots are painful, I hate them! And medicine, don't even get me started on that. If they can find cures for almost anything, then why can't they make a medicine that tastes good? Would it really be that hard? I don't think so! All of it is just so stupid!"

"Amen to that, I hate them, too. You know, they gave me a shot when I wasn't even sick because they thought I had the flu, but it was actually just allergy season? Then they made my parents pay for their mistake, and then made us pay for the pills for the allergies!"

"That's what I mean!" the little Usagi exclaimed. "They're always messing up! Most are just money-hungry fools. There are barely any good doctors out there in this time period."

"Well, all doctors are horrible compared to Mamoru-kun," Sailor Moon said dreamily, hand on her cheek, eyes slightly drooped. "He's going to be the only good one out there."

"Yeah, he's amazing," the little one said almost as if she was remembering something. A slight gloss misted over her dark eyes, but it wasn't a sad one. A smile spread itself lightly across her lips before being pulled out of whatever it was she was thinking about.

'I kind of like her,' Sailor Moon thought to herself watching the pink haired girl intently who was still idly swinging her legs with seemingly no cares in the world. 'It'd be such a shame if she died in battle. Especially for one she isn't even a part of. This war that Nokemono started should include me and only me. If I won't even let the senshi join in on this fight, then there's no way I'm allowing her to, even if she is really powerful. Now I've just got to make her understand this.'

"U… Usagi-chan… No, no, it's just too weird calling you that." The little one arched an eyebrow at her.

"Is it really that strange to talk to someone with the same name as you?"

"If you're me, then yes, it is. I've never met another Usagi in my life until now. It's not exactly a common name. I'm going to call you something else… um…" Sailor Moon leaned her chin on her fist trying to find the perfect nickname. Her brow scrunched up in concentration.

"OK, it should have some part of Usagi in it. So now just to find something else…' She took a moment to study the person in need of a new name. Gazing downwards she realized just how small the kid really was compared to her, and that was saying something considering that she wasn't exactly on the tall side. Something inside her clicked and she smiled.

"Got it! You're new name is going to be Chibiusa-chan!" she declared, a proud undertone to her voice at a job well done of picking it out. It was perfect for her. Too bad Chibiusa didn't find it as grand as she did.

"Hey, chibi means I'm a short kid!" Her cheeks flared up in some kind of anger which became amusing for Usagi to provoke.

"Eh? So? It fits you perfectly." She stretched out the word 'perfectly' in a teasing tone getting the pink haired girl even more annoyed. "Chibiusa-chan."

"I'm not short, and I'm not a kid!" she flared displaying her temper in a mild way. Usagi grinned cheekily.

"Oh, of course you're not, what could have ever given me that idea?" she inquired, leaning her elbow atop of the kid's pink hair transforming her effectively into an armrest. "You, short? Impossible!" Fuming beneath Sailor Moon's elbow length silver gloves she brushed them aside and crossed her arms pouting.

"Get off me!" After pouting cutely for a few moments she seemed to give in. "OK, I'll accept the name but not because it's true! I'm only doing this so that other people can tell the difference between us, got it?"

"Right, right." When Chibiusa didn't give up her expression Usagi was so tempted to pinch her cheeks that she did just that. "Aw, you're such a cute, little chibi! Who's a cute, little chibi? You are! Yes, you are!" Exasperatedly, the child scoffed and gave her a 'back-off' kind of look.

"Can you just get on with what you were going to tell me before this whole new name episode?" she inquired, her patience finally seeming to run out. Deciding to throw out any ideas of further provocation she got onto her point getting back into the serious mood.

"Actually, the reason I really approached you, Chibiusa-chan, is to tell you to stop interfering with my work." After seeing the confused expression of her companion she explained a bit further. "You know… the whole Nokemono thing?" Chibiusa's mouth formed an 'O' in realization. She frowned then looking directly into the heroine's silver-blue eyes.

"I can't do that."

"I'm not exactly offering you to quit. I'm ordering you to."

"That's one order that I can't follow."

"Do you even know what you're getting yourself into? You got lucky last time, kid. I didn't even know for sure that I'd be there to rescue you in time!" she exploded trying to get it through Chibiusa's head that she absolutely couldn't do this anymore. "This isn't a game, Chibiusa-chan. If you die you can't just hit the reset button and start all over again. It won't work that way."

"Will you stop treating me as if I don't know anything?! I've already considered all of that before coming here! My mind is already made up and there's not one thing you can do about it!"

"Why are you so determined to get involved? This doesn't even have anything to do with you!"

"Don't assume things like that," Chibiusa said solemnly looking downwards. Her voice grew an octave lower as she continued. "You might be more involved in this than me, but don't think that means I have nothing to do with it. You're not the only one who's been hurt by them."

She looked so fragile in that moment that Usagi wanted to hold her tight to comfort Chibiusa. Instead of the body enveloping embrace she wanted to give she placed one arm around her shoulders and tilted the girl so she leaned on her shoulder.

"Chibiusa-chan…" It made her wonder just how Nokemono could have hurt her. Before this week Usagi had never seen her around a youma or Nokemono, so it did leave her questioning what her relationship to them was. Then it made her outraged, but she only raged inside instead of putting the feeling into words. 'It's one thing trying to hurt me, but a child? That's unforgivable.'

"I'm going to kill them."

Beyond shocked at her words Usagi looked downwards wondering if she was just imagining things. Sure, it was common for kids to lightly say they were so mad that they'd kill someone, but Chibiusa said it so icily, so violently, as if she were truly going to carry it out. It saddened her that someone as young as her already had enough hatred to consider murder an option to make them happier.

"It's not as easy as you think it is… killing someone." Usagi should know. She's had plently of thoughts of using that means to stop what Nokemono was trying to accomplish. On more than one occasion it was very tempting, and she had the power to do it, but always at the last moment she found that she couldn't do it. Her iron-will would always eventually crumble at the final moment when she could strike them into oblivion. Just thinking about how she'd feel afterwards made her blood immediately halt.

"No one said it'd be easy," she stated as her eyes were still fixated on the ground. "I already understand that, too. I've never even killed a youma before, so I don't even want to imagine how it'd feel to kill a human, but that's not going to stop me. I'm going to kill Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Saturn no matter what. If they truly have to die then it's not going to be you who kills them, I'll make sure it's me." Her fists clenched at her sides as her small frame shook with obvious resentment. "No matter what."

"Your resolve sounds pretty final, but I'm not letting someone as young as you dirty your hands with blood. Nokemono is my enemy, not yours. They might've done something horrible to you, I don't know, but if they have then let me be the one who'll extract your revenge. Place your hopes in me and I'll be sure to take care of them. I won't die."

"I'm not worried about you being the one to die. Under the right circumstances you will kill them; that's not an opinion that I have, it's a fact. I know you will. You have more than enough power to blow up a planet. Taking care of not even a handful of people probably won't even wear you out unless you're not paying attention in battle."

"That's right, so just let me take care of this." Truthfully, Chibiusa's words frightened Usagi more than she'd like to admit. Having someone indefinitely believe she was capable of murder sent chills up and down her spine and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. It helped reaffirm she was capable to take someone's life.

Sailor Moon snaked her right hand, the one she wasn't hugging her with, behind her back while the child's attention was not on her. Again the familiar warmth of energy enveloped her palm and she could gradually feel something forming there. When a decent amount of Moon Dust was nestled in her grip she played with it in her fingers for a few moments waiting for the opportune moment to unleash it.

'This really isn't the way I wanted to solve my problem with Chibiusa, but it's the quickest and the easiest. I'll just remove all memories of Nokemono. That way, whatever horrible thing they did to her, she can forget and be taken out of the danger of battle. I realize I have no right at all to do this, but it's for her safety, right?'

Usagi tried to lie to herself saying this was for the kid's own interest, but she knew that deep down what she was doing was a crime. Something that she might never be forgiven of. Memories were one of the only few things that a human could hold onto and greedily claim as their own. They were that person's and no one else's. The senshi placed resorting to Moon Dust to be one of the greatest sins she could commit, and that was why she was so reluctant on doing it to the girls and Mamoru. She didn't figure she'd have to use it again. Ever. To lift the guilt that was steadily taking over she kept repeating, 'This is for the best. It might even make her happier.'

"But I can't let you be the one to do it. No matter what I'm going to be the one to end their lives. Just… give me some time before I do it. I need to muster up the nerve first. Maybe take care of some youma as practice. So, you can just relax and let me handle everything. I'm relieving you of your duty."

Even though this was no situation to laugh, Usagi couldn't help but chuckle. She sounded like a superior officer giving orders to their subunits. If anything it was supposed to be the other way around. Chibiusa was just too stubborn, that was for sure. There would be no persuasion skills powerful enough to get her to stop her goal.

Softly, the wind picked up carrying the glistening sands away from her palm. Directing her powers over to Chibiusa it wouldn't take long for this to be over with. With the separation of memories the person falls into a deep slumber from the strain of trying to prevent it from happening. She could leave with a mission accomplished feeling letting the girl peacefully sleep on the bench. When she woke up she would probably no doubt return home with no intentions of seeking some unknown revenge.

Around the pink haired girl's side she could faintly see the sands drifting ever so casually up to her ear. Just a few more seconds…

Right when it reached the outer rim of her ear it stopped. It seemed to be pushing against an unseen force which was blocking it from the entry it so desperately craved. Chibiusa, still unaware of what was happening, continued conversing Usagi into letting her take control of the Nokemono situation. Sailor Moon entered a puzzlement muffling out the child's words in an attempt to think more clearly.

'What happened? Why isn't it entering through her ear? It's almost as if there was a barrier set up…' Her eyes widened wondering if that indeed might be the case. This time studying Chibiusa she focused exclusively the ear facing her side. Squinting, Usagi could barely see the rays of sun illuminate a completely transparent wall. She hadn't noticed that before and probably wouldn't have if she wasn't looking straight at it. It was like looking at a superbly weaker version of the shine that cars got on their glass when the sun hit them. 'No way… did she assume that I would try using Moon Dust on her? That's impossible! Only Luna and Artemis know I have that ability, there's no way she could know! But why else would she put up an obstacle in the exact spot that the sand enters? She must have figured I would try to do this… but how?'

ooOoo

Tomoe Hotaru sat peacefully in the audience as the last tones conjured from the violin faded in the sky. Afterwards there was much clapping from her and the people around showing thanks for the grand concert. Michiru, on stage, took a graceful curtsy to show appreciation for their attention. She then announced that she and the orchestra were going to take a short break and then bring on the second half of the performance.

"It's so soothing to hear Michiru-san play isn't it, Haruka-san?" Hotaru said contently standing up from her seat. Haruka, who she was sitting next to, smiled a small grin and nodded agreeing with her. Together they looked in the star's direction and saw the teen waving for them to come over. Happily, the eleven year old girl grabbed Haruka by the arm and dragged her over to their longtime friend.

"Michiru-san, you were really great," Hotaru complimented shyly shuffling her feet on the ground. The violinist chuckled gently at her antics. Haruka joined in on the chuckle as well and ruffled her hair slightly. Self-consciously she brushed the strands back in place smiling at the attention.

"Thank you, Hotaru-chan." Michiru then turned towards Haruka and whispered so no one could eavesdrop, "So, did you find the princess?"

"Yeah, I found the Moon Brat," she said sternly with the smile wiped from her lips. "She was crying on a city bench by herself. It was fairly easy to approach her." Hotaru gasped inaudibly and looked up at the sandy haired woman.

"Crying? I wonder why…" That was Hotaru's fatal weakness; she cared too much about other people. Even though the person she was directing her sympathy to at the moment was the enemy who they would eventually murder it didn't matter. That was why Haruka and Michiru usually keep her away from the battlefield.

She, as Sailor Saturn, would just get in the way and end up trying to get them all to stop fighting. Each time they go off to summon a youma or fight her directly they tell her to stay behind, and Hotaru was all right with that. Personally, she didn't want to fight to the death. Too messy and too many people get hurt. She despised that. She was content to just heal all the wounds that Nokemono came back with after a scrimmage. At least she could be of use that way.

"I don't know what for; she wouldn't tell me. Not that I care, really," she replied in a laid back sort of manner. "The good news is that I managed to get at least a little close to her. The clueless princess doesn't even have any suspicions of me."

"I see. That's good," Michiru said smiling lightly as the plan was already underway. "I didn't think it would be that easy to get to her. Do you know where she is right now?"

"She was with me until recently. Actually, Moon Brat was going to come to your performance with me, but she had to go at the last minute. I think she's still in the park somewhere." Suddenly, a smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. "Why don't we… send her someone to play with?"

"You mean another youma?" Hotaru questioned internally knowing that was what she meant. "But she must've just gotten better from the last fight. You said she was really banged up after that…"

"We're not exactly trying to be nice to her, Hotaru-chan," Michiru said in a stern voice. "I'll summon this one. There's a lot of water due to the lake here in the park so it'll be easy."

Conjuring a youma was most effectively done by using an element as a medium. Uranus generally used the wind or clouds since that was what she trained under, and for Neptune it was water or ice. Really, they didn't know where the youmas came from, but once summoned to Earth they would fight for the person who brought them there.

Hotaru had a hunch as to why they did this. She thought that maybe wherever they were originally from was somewhere horrid and vile. A place similar to what humans described as heck. Some place that was near impossible to live and hard to survive. Comparing that image to Earth this was a paradise. Being brought here, where the sun shines and there are so many vibrant colors, they might be so ecstatic to be freed from that place that they'd do anything their conjurers would tell them. That was just her theory, anyways.

The black haired girl hesitated in nodding with the plan. Honestly, she didn't really want to harm Tsukino Usagi. What happened in the past didn't matter much to their lives right now. She didn't even know how it was the Moon Princess's fault for their home world's destruction; she couldn't recall much details of her former life. She let out a sad sigh knowing nothing she said would convince them to give up, though. Their minds were made up long ago; they were going to kill her or die trying. All she could do was heal them afterwards.

"You're not going to fight her again, are you? I don't want you to get hurt like that again so soon. You finally woke up today, and you still have the concert to do!"

"No, today we're just going to send a youma over to her," Haruka comforted placing a hand on her shoulder. "Just to trouble her a little bit. Hurry up and do it, Michiru. You're going to have to go on again soon." The sea green haired woman nodded already in the process of doing so.

Hotaru sighed again. She was just planning to have a peaceful day with her two best friends, but now she couldn't enjoy it as much knowing that they were troubling someone out there.