Hello again! Time for the second chapter! I know it's quick, but I had already written most of it when I published the first chapter.

I wish I could do a better smiley, but every time I try to make one and publish a chapter, some of the characters will not show up. So it looks more like I made a typo. Oh well…

Disclaimer: If you knew me, you would not guess that I am a Sailor Moon aficionado, even though I love fantasy and fairy tales and what not. So I've always kept it a secret. I have a very close friend that is really popular, pretty, athletic, and was voted "Best Personality" senior year. So I would never have guessed that she like Sailor Moon too! Imagine my shock when I saw that she had every season on DVD at her house! Obviously, if my friend can own more Sailor Moon merchandise than I can, then she is more suspect for owning the rights. So obviously, I do not own any of Sailor Moon.

Get it?

Good.

p.s. Sometimes I use the English names for characters if I like them better than the Japanese names.

-Ari And Usagi Are At The Video Arcade After Ari's First Day Of School-

"So um, you just tied with me on the Sailor V game…" Usagi said in disbelief.

Ari stepped back and put a hand on her head in embarrassment. "Oh, wow, I did!" she chuckled.

"Hey, Usagi! Who's your cute friend?" Andrew asked, appearing out of nowhere.

Ari turned around and Andrew did a double take. "Woah! Usagi, is this your twin?"

"Twin?" laughed Ari. "I don't think we look anything alike!"

"Eh?…" Usagi and Andrew's faces dropped.

Ari just raised an eyebrow and giggled. "My name is Ari, by the way."

"Andrew," he stuck out his hand to shake hers. "And I think I'll start calling you Usagi's Twin."

Ari and Usagi laughed as they left the arcade. "Goodbye, Andrew!"

"Bye Usagi! Bye Usagi's Twin!"

"Well, I better get to the study group, or my friends will be mad," Usagi grumbled. "I can walk you home first. Where do you live?"

"Live?" Ari asked, and she froze on the sidewalk.

Usagi turned to her. Ari's eyes were oddly clouded, and her face was blank and no longer cheerful.

"Live…? I feel as if I just arrived here this morning…" Ari said in a faraway voice. She came to and shook her head.

"You know what? For some reason, I don't think I live anywhere! Isn't that strange?" Ari gave an embarrassed laugh.

"That is strange, Ari. Maybe you could come back to my house and spend the night?" Usagi offered. "Perhaps you just hit your head on something."

"I don't think so…" Ari shook her head again. "But sure, I would love to spend the night until I can sort this out!"

"Great!" Usagi said happily. "It'll be like a sleepover, my new friend!"

-Usagi's House-

"You'll love my mom. She's an awesome cook, and she goes all out when I have guests over," Usagi gushed to Ari as they approached the door.

"I'm sure I—" Ari broke off as the front door swung open.

"Finally, you are home, Usagi!" Mrs. Tsukino scolded to Usagi.

"Sorry, mom!" apologized Usagi. "Oh mom, this is Ari."

"Of course it's Ari, why are you introducing me?" Mrs. Tsukino asked with a frown. She turned to Ari and enveloped her in a hug.

"Oof!" let out Ari as Mrs. Tsukino squeezed the air out of her.

"Mom?" Usagi asked in disbelief. "Do you know Ari?"

Mrs. Tsukino laughed. "Of course I know Ari! We were expecting her today, I am so glad that you picked her up and brought her home."

"Why would you be expecting her, mom?" Usagi asked quickly.

"You don't remember? Oh, Usagi, I wish that we could improve on your memory," sighed Mrs. Tsukino. "I just can't believe that you forgot your cousin was coming today!"

"COUSIN!?" gasped Ari and Usagi together.

"You girls," Mrs. Tsukino shook her head and laughed. "Well, come on in Ari. I have a lemon pie baking for you." Chuckling, she went inside the house.

"We're cousins?" Ari asked in shock.

"Is that why we look alike?" Usagi asked in the same voice. The two girls turned to face each other, a million questions in their eyes.

"This is not…the first time that something like this has happened," muttered Usagi under her breath. She could only be reminded of the time when Chibiusa had tricked her family into thinking that she was their cousin. But at that time, Usagi had known that they were not cousins, and thought that they were not related at all. As it turned out, she was wrong: Chibiusa was her daughter from the future!

Usagi sighed. "Well, you had better come inside. At least you have a place to stay now! Although…" Usagi tapped her finger to her chin, "what with Chibiusa taking up the attic, I don't know where you'll stay!"

"Oh, cousin Ari!" called Mrs. Tsukino in a singsong voice from inside of the house. "Come on in! You can come put your stuff in Usagi's room, where you'll be staying. I've made up an extra bed for you!"

"Well, that answers that," laughed Ari and Usagi together.

"I don't really know what's going on, but until I can regain my memory, I'll take it for what I see!" Ari said happily.

Usagi linked arms with Ari. "Come on, let's go get some of that pie!" she said, and they skipped into the house together.

-Somewhere In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…J.K.!…-

Somewhere far away, a life force began to unfold. From the darkest, deepest constellation in the solar system, a light that had once faded had come back. But the crystal encasing was now black, and its light harsh and discordant. It burned all of the stars around it, and made them flicker and fade.

The life force flew to Earth at the speed of light, shedding its cocoon the entire way. The shards formed a dark object above Tokyo, a hovering black crystal palace.

There were three towers. The life force landed inside of the tower on the farthest right. It lit up the tower and burst out. The palace was so high above the people of Earth that nobody could hear the surprised yet cold laugh coming from the tower.

-The Next Day-

"We're going to be late!" Usagi yelled.

"Usagi, why did you not wake me!?" Ari cried, running alongside her.

"I was asleep!" cried Usagi. "I was having beautiful dreams, and I did not wish to end them just yet!"

"The sun is so wonderful to wake up to, and you deprived me of it!" wailed Ari. "Hurry up, this is only my second day and I do not want to make a bad impression!"

Ari and Usagi rounded the corner to where their high school was. It was a cloudless day, so when the dark floating object loomed into view, it took Usagi and Ari by great surprise.

They stopped in their tracks and gasped.

"What is that?" Usagi cried.

"I don't know, but Usagi, we can check it out later. Right now, we have school!" Ari yelled, and grabbed Usagi's hand, steering her inside.

-Lunch Time-

"Mmm, I am so glad that I have such a talented new friend!" Ari exclaimed as she bit into the fruit pastry that Makoto had offered.

"Yeah, but don't get so used to it. If I keep giving you food, I'll have to give it to Usagi, also!" Makoto joked.

"You guys!" Ami said frantically, running up to the group.

"Why are you so late?" asked Minako.

"Look!" Ami pointed to the floating black object in the sky. "I saw that from the window in my Advanced Calculus class, and I wanted to get a better look."

"Oh, hey, Ari and I saw that this morning," Usagi remembered. "What do you think it is?"

Rei closed her eyes and concentrated. "You know, I'm getting a bad vibe from it."

"The Scouts should go check it out later!" said Minako.

"The Sailor Scouts?" asked Ari pleasantly.

Everybody gasped. They had forgotten that Ari was sitting with them.

"Oh, um, yeah, the Sailor Scouts," Usagi said quickly. "They always fight off evil, so they should go check it out."

"Right, right!" agreed Makoto, Minako, Rei, and Ami.

"Oh, okay," nodded Ari. "Hey, I'm going to go get a soda. Anybody want one?"

"No thanks!" chimed all of the girls.

"That was close!" sighed Usagi when Ari had left.

"Too close. We need to watch what we say around her," Ami said.

"Usagi, I know that she's living with you now," said Rei (Usagi had informed them of this that morning), "but I don't think that it would be a good idea to hang out with her after school, if we're going to be doing Scout stuff."

"But I thought we were finished with being Sailor Scouts, until we were reborn in Crystal Tokyo!" argued Usagi.

Ami shook her head. "Not when there's evil afoot. I agree with Rei, we shouldn't spend too much extra time with Ari."

"But…" Usagi said sadly. She looked over at Molly, who was eating with a different group of girls. She had grown distant from her friend over the years because of the Sailor Scouts, and she knew how sad that had made Molly. She didn't want to make a new friend and then abandon her.

Usagi stuck her nose in the air. "I don't really agree with that. She's going to question where Chibiusa and I go if we start fighting crime again."

Rei seemed to be thinking. "Well…maybe you could explain this to Chibiusa? Have her move back into your room and put Ari in the attic? That way, you will be able to sneak out at night if we have to fight evil again, without Ari knowing."

Usagi didn't like this, but she couldn't see a way around it. "Okay, I guess so. Luna told me last night after Ari had fallen asleep that she didn't trust Ari, anyway."

"Well, what with everything strange that has happened, I think we should stay cautious of her," Ami agreed.

"Sorry, Usagi," Makoto gave Usagi a hug. "She seems nice, but I have to agree with Ami. It is dangerous to let outsiders get too close with us Sailor Scouts."

Rei and Minako nodded in agreement, just as Ari came walking back to the group, a soda in her hands.

Usagi wanted to cry. To make a new friend like this, and then have to break ties with her? It didn't seem fair! But the other girls stood up to go, leaving Usagi to tell Ari that she could not attend the study sessions after school. Ever.

"What?" Ari asked, her eyes sad and puzzled. "Why?"

"The other girls…" Usagi waved her hand around loftily, "don't…um…like you very much?"

"Oh, was it something I said?" Ari asked worriedly.

"No, they just…don't like you," Usagi struggled to say. She hated lying like this.

"I understand." Ari stood up to leave. "Does this mean we can't be friends now?"

"Well, we probably shouldn't," Usagi said in a rush, "but you're still going to be living with me, right? We can hang out together and not tell the other girls."

"That doesn't seem right, but I still want to be your friend, Usagi," Ari said sadly. "Okay. I won't question any of this. I'll just go with it. I'll see you at home, Usagi!" Ari waved over her shoulder.

"See ya," mumbled Usagi, her head down. For some unexplainable reason, she felt as if a light in her had burned out, even though she had no even known that that light had been there.

Okay, well, that was longer than the first chapter, wasn't it? I hope you enjoyed it! In the next chapter, you'll start seeing some Sailor Scout action! Maybe. If you're good. Haha.

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