A/N: Looking at the last chapter preview, I realize these chapters aren't really that long. ^^ Trust me, for me they are, but I enjoy writing these odd fanfictions. .

DISCLAIMER: Ooh, I can say Miki and Sherona are mine, completely mine ((meheheheh. .)), while Boja is that guy from Coffee Prince ((not mine either ^^;)) who always wants to fight the main character. Sailor Moon belongs to awesome Naoko Takeuchi. Yeah! ^^

Because You're What You Are

Makoto stumbled into her apartment and blearily landed on the couch.

Instantly her back hit rocks.

"OW! Boja! When I come home, I don't care if you're bleeding all over the upholstery, just get off it when I lay down!"

She knew she shouldn't have yelled at her sister's boyfriend. But she was tired as heck, and everything was beginning to blur. This was a first time any one of them had been mortally wounded during a fight, and everyone had stayed on the same power level for so long, it had been a shock when Rei had snapped and about burned down the whole forest.

It was as if her plate was going to break, there was so much going on.

Rolling over onto her stomach, Makoto buried her head under the pillow.

The fact that Ami didn't know she was Sailor Jupiter could only last for so long. Why she'd did it in the first place was a complete mystery. Why Haruka had stopped her from transforming the first time was a mystery, too.

They still hadn't told her why, and so she'd come to her own conclusion, at least for her own part. The fact that not one of the senshi except for Rei, who hadn't been there when it happened, didn't know why she had cut her ponytail was something that contributed to her present situation.

She'd chopped off her ponytail because she'd been weak.

She hadn't been able to protect her fellow senshi when they'd first needed it, DESPERATELY needed it. So she'd arrogantly asked Haruka to fill in for her for the first meeting, so she'd have more time to poke and prod and try to cure Ami's wounds as a human, as a person who was caring, who wouldn't judge.

She'd turned arrogant.

And with a new friendship on the line, it would only get worse if she slipped up.

". . . Mako-neechan?"

Grunting, Makoto moved her shoulders and flopped over to stare dully at Boja. The boy's eye was swolen over, but she could detect the steady glint of respect in the other eye when he spoke to her.

He knelt over by the kitchen table, hand on Miki's leg in a comforting touch. The two looked so cute together right then, Makoto almost laughed.

Supper was on the table.

"You know how to cook, Boja?"

At the boy's shake of head and Miki's embarrassed smile, Makoto's eyes narrowed. She was on her feet in an instant.

"Who's there? Miki, who did you let in?"

Her sister opened her mouth, but then stopped.

"Why? Did you do something to the door?"

The way Miki said it had Makoto inspecting the door knob, staring over at her curiously. Yes, Makoto had put a slight barrier of an electric ball around the knob, but then, anyone with a brain and a bit of power from darkness or light could shimmy it with force.

"Nothing I usually don't do. Miki, who cooked supper?"

"Don't get your pigtails all tied up in knots, sweetie, it was only me. I let myself in."

The lazy drawl was slow, sure.

Sherona appeared out of the shadows, and Makoto inwardly gasped.

To human eyes, the woman was in the same physical busty shape she was during that first meeting, but to Makoto's eyes, her inner planet and senshi being reeled in shock.

Youma.

Those bright red fingernails had turned into long crimson claws, and there was a knowing glint behind the green eyes, narrowed in a demonic smile. Red hair flowed past her shapely hips, whereas yesterday it had only came to her shoulders.

Yet something was different.

Something was certainly off about this woman, and Makoto warily sat at the kitchen table and muttered an apology to her sister and Boja, then turning to face Sherona as she would have if she hadn't seen what she currently looked at.

"I'm sorry, Sherona-chan, I just wasn't expecting anyone home when I came back."

Makoto took a deep breath. She didn't feel any bad intentions from this youma, and she knew she would instinctively know if Sherona meant them any harm. Heck, she even cooked them supper! So she told.

"You see, Miki and Boja were attacked by some people Ami's aunt hired, and I really didn't want them coming over here while I was gone. Even though I'm a karate instructor for little kids, this little brat hasn't really listened or taken lessons all that well."

It wasn't a lie.

Not really.

It just wasn't a full-blown spill-your-guts truth, either. Makoto didn't know where or whose side Sherona was on, and she wasn't going to give her plentiful information without her arm being twisted behind her back.

"Oh. Well, I just jimmied the lock a little and let myself in. Heck, sweetie, I even did a little laundry and applied that nice soap you've got stashed away in the cupboards!"

The wry smile pointed upwards towards knowing eyes, and Makoto raised her own eyes to direct a small challenge. It was the simplest of looks, but it would portray a whole lot of meaning.

"Boja, you and Miki are probably really edgy after being cooped up all day. I know you've got a bit of muscle in there, since I wrestled with you a bit, so you're good to go. Stick to the crowded places and be back by eight-thirty, okay? Miki's got some money stashed in her left sock, make her use it if you guys get hungry."

At her sister's surprised whine, Makoto turned in her seat and grinned, jerking her chin at the door and shooing them out.

"I'll pay you back when you come home, little sneak. Boja, please make sure she gets back here. Then I'LL walk YOU home."

Hearing the dead grunt of many acceptance, Makoto grinned and turned back to Sherona. The door closed with a gentle bang. Youma red met senshi green in an electric crackle of debating glares. After a thought, both asked, revealing their true natures in their sole forms.

"Who are you?"

"Setsuna, are you SURE we should let Makoto keep up the pretense of not being Sailor Jupiter?"

"Yes, Haruka. There is someone out there that will inevitably tell Ami's aunt who and what her niece is, and chaos will be unleashed."

"Haruka, we've got to trust Setsuna. She's told us all she can, and even Hotaru is acting pretty grim around ChibiUsa. I'm sure they know more, but it will be better if Makoto doesn't reveal she's Sailor Jupiter."

". . . Okay, Michiru. I DO trust you, Setsuna, it's just seeing Makoto-chan being so. . hurt, just like she was before when we first met her. ."

"Don't worry. She'll definitely come around."

She had just gotten back from the hospital.

Just gotten over the shock of actually transporting a fellow senshi there, another at her back, guiding her to the bathroom's sinks and rubbing her back as she practically barfed her guts up, not being able to handle the pain of seeing someone she didn't know almost dying rather than blasting a youma to pieces and not caring.

What it must be like for Sailor Mars back there, her eyes tearing up in rage and hate, the resounding echo haunting her that she hadn't been able to protect the one she'd been destined to be with.

But it wasn't that that bugged her now.

When she'd went back to check on Sailor V, the girl now in civilian mode, those baby blue eyes had looked her over and she'd smiled.

Smiled.

And said, her face being oh-so-gentle, nice even though she was hurting.

"Wow, Makoto sure netted herself a cute one. Don't worry about her, Ami-chan, she can more than handle her own. She's protected us more than once, and we all owe each other our lives when it all comes down to it. Thanks for helping me here."

Ami frowned, her attention turning back to Ryohizu, who was swimming on his back, his little green fins lazily fanning the water bubbles around him.

She didn't know why, but something was bothering her, and she was certain the green fish knew something she didn't. He wasn't a come-to-life robot for nothing. Ami knew Ryohizu had some footage inside of him that was the most precious, but due to the spirited life inside of him, she respected him enough to let him be in her fishtank.

"Ryo, come on, I need to know. Something's different about my aunt. She usually strikes at the HEART of the matter, and that would be, to my knowledge, Mako-chan. Why did she go after Miki and Boja when Mako-chan was right there?"

An emerald eye peered at her.

"To your knowledge, 'Mako-chan' is just a karate instructor. Karate instructors have a pretty good way to defend themselves."

Ami frowned even more. She wasn't satisfied, and until she'd solved this unbearable itch inside of her, an itch like a puzzle, then she'd be pacing across her blue carpet until there was a large hole in it.

"Ryo, there's more. I can feel it. That woman who's my aunt has not let anything like that stop her before."

The green fish nodded, then floated past the algae and kelp kept neatly inside. With a flick of his fin, Ryohizu twirled and grinned at her, somehow enabling the camcorder inside of him.

It wasn't creepy, just. . . unnerving.

Having a fish grin at you while taking your picture and video images.

"It's not like she's not normal, you know?"

Ami's mind reeled. What did Ryohizu mean, Mako-chan wasn't normal? Unless her connection to the senshi, but that didn't mean anything. Heck, she'd told Sherona when she'd first become one, and from then, Sherona had been recording any kind of information on what the senshi had been doing, taking footage of battles and their everyday life.

It helped since Sherona was a youma, too.

The busty 'maid' was the type of youma that had the 'key essentials' of stealing into people's minds and knowing what was there, what was lying in wait, what people truly desired.

She also had a great ability to pick locks, of any kind.

"Ryohizu, Mako-chan is as normal as they come, and you know that."

An innocent twirl in the water.

"I do? Maybe, but not the fire-head."

Ryohizu referred to Sherona as the firehead. Maybe because she was the one who had set the lab on fire when their creator had planned on getting rid of all his inventions when the chemical had been spilled, enabling Ryohizu his soul.

Ami sighed and flicked in a couple of nibbles, rewarding the robotic fluidity of Ryohizu and making sure he settled in correctly in the murky but clean waters of the fishtank. There was no need to be feeling this guilt, this doubt, this concern for a girl she knew who could take care of herself, but Ami found herself wondering how.

Even if Makoto was tall, dark and great at karate, so much a black belt was in store, was it really that safe for her? The reason that Ami was worrying, the very facts of the reason was. . .

Ami's aunt was a youma.

And Sherona was her aunt's half-sister.

While her mom was purely human.

Ami walked to the mirror in her sparse room and stared at herself. The dark depths of her blue eyes, only lightening when she was happy, darkening more so than ever going the other way, her nose straight and not broken ever in her life.

The mouth was something she'd gotten from her father, her mother had said.

A very gentle man with a genuinely good nature, one with the ponds and forests, and somewhat of an odd character, wielding a small pendant about his neck in a fashion similiar to the sword.

He was a prince from another dimension, another fairy tale.

And he had fallen in love with her mother, taken her as a bride, and was called away by the dark fairies who had been the bodyguards of his kingdom. As a prince, he had yet no power to over-rule his father's wishes to return and become the future king.

Yet someday, her mother had promised her, someday, he would return, and on that day, she would become a princess and find herself a mate.

But that day was to come.

Because in the mirror, her appearance had changed.

Her appearance was one of a senshi's.

"My half sister is a youma. Yes, Makoto-chan, Ami's aunt is a youma. And I'm one, too, as you can see. Ami also has a fish named Ryohizu that I rescued from the lab we had escaped from when Ryohizu's creator deemed it likely he'd rather blow the lab up than give himself over to the authorities. The only problem is, he's a robot, and that means there's a good chance Ami's aunt knows about him and has robbed his memory and card for a certain amount of time."

Makoto stared at Sherona.

She had come to terms that the fire-head youma in front of her was someone she could trust, someone she could turn to when she was in danger, but the things she was telling her right now made her want to cry.

It was too much, too many questions going unanswered, was it always going to be like this?

Minako was in the hospital; she couldn't help but not let Ami know she was Sailor Jupiter, especially if her aunt was going to pin something on her; Ami had yet had to be introduced properly to the senshi, and if the genius found out Makoto was Sailor Jupiter and reacted wrong, then their friendship and every connection would go down the drain.

But it wouldn't.

Ami would have to work with them while the youma got stronger, beat them and grow strong themselves, but with Makoto working there beside her, it would be utter hell.

Makoto closed her eyes and slammed her head against the kitchen table.

Except, last time the kitchen table wasn't so soft.

Looking up, the lightning senshi stared into red eyes, the orbs full and somehow slitted. The eyes of a youma. Yet the eyes of a companion.

"Don't hurt yourself right now, Makoto-chan. It won't help you any."

Somehow she managed to nod, and even though she knew it was common sense, took a deep breath of nice fresh air. It was so nice out that night, but now she knew something was outside, lurking out there, just waiting to pounce on them and any weaknesses they would possess.

So they would stick together.

Frowning, Makoto rose from the table, Sherona close behind.

"What are you going to do, Makoto-chan?"

Grabbing her cell phone, Makoto punched in Miki's number and told her to hurry home. Flipping the cover back and then to the front, where she slid the back off and extracted a couple of paper bills, laying them on the table, Makoto headed towards the door.

She grabbed her jacket, scribbling a short note on the pad and flicking it towards the table. Miki was a big girl, and Boja a big boy. Besides, if he did anything towards her sister, Makoto would know, and Boja knew she wouldn't mind wasting a couple hours of her life arranging a long, painful death for him.

Turning back to Sherona, Makoto flipped open her cell phone a hit speed dial.

"Hey, Blue? I'm coming over. I have something to tell you."

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A/N: -.-; This is getting harder and harder to write. . . I need new ideas, so trust me, slow going for this one. BUT! I am going to finish this no matter what, 'cuz I'm starting to take pride in my work! *roar!* Hoped ya enjoyed anyhow, thanks for reading! ^^