It was late. The photo shoot had taken way longer than expected and Mina was tired. She changed quickly out of the designer gown she'd been wearing into sneakers and a ball cap. She'd always wanted to be famous, but sometimes she just didn't want to be recognized. When she covered her hair less people knew who she was. Stuffing her red bow into her clutch Mina hurried out of the cramped dressing room.
She could hardly believe this is where her life had led. She smiled. She'd released her first CD, done countless modelling and was known all over Japan. It was the life she'd always talked about, and the one that she'd always skipped studying to prepare for. Amy had reached her residency this month, Raye took over then Temple so Gramps could retire, and Lita had finally got financial backing to open her own restaurant. Everyone seemed to be living their dreams. Except Serena.
Mina's smile faded. She had gotten to the end of the dirty white hallway jammed full of extra props and lighting equipment. Whoever said show business is all glamorous never saw this hallway. But back to Serena. It was too quick after high school that she married Diamond. Immediately falling into servitude. Diamond was always demanding she do this, or eat that, or don't speak to them. It was like Serena wasn't even there now, just this robot who looked like her.
Amy's been at school just over a month when she called Mina about the letter.
"Mina," Amy's voice was quiet on the phone.
"Amy! I am soo happy you called, how is your dorm? Is there any hot guys in pre-med? Do you get out at all?" a million questions bubbled from Mina's lips.
"It's fine, everything here is fine... but... that's not why I called," Amy said
"Oh. What's wrong?" Mina stopped shouting.
"Have you spoken to Serena lately?"
"No, whenever I call Diamond says she's busy," Mina said.
"I got a letter... I... it's from her," Any sounded like she was trying not to cry.
"What does it say?"
"That she doesn't want to hear from me anymore, she's tired of the way that I always make her feel dumb for getting good grades and that she doesn't want a stuck up brain pretending to be her friend anymore. You were always closest to her. What can I do?"
Mina didn't have an answer.
Mina shook her head at the memory and stepped into the parking lot. The lot was mostly deserted. Her shiny red convertible was almost exactly in the middle of the lot. A street lamp lit only where she was standing and it seemed eerily dark tonight. There were a few trees about with the beginning of spring buds forming on the branches. She never knew why the studio had random trees in their parking lots. She supposed they were trying to be Earth friendly. She let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding and started walking again when something soft brushed her legs.
Mina yelped and jumped back. She had her hand on her chest, baby blues as wide as she could make them. Looking down she saw a pure white cat staring at her, only it had the strangest bald spot. It was shaped just like a crescent moon.
Mina kneeled down and held out a hand to the cat. "C'mere little kitty, I'll be nice, don't worry."
She clucked her tongue at it. It just stared back at her. It almost looked like it was studying her. Strange cat.
"Well I got to go home now. If you are here tomorrow I will give you some milk. How does that sound?" She reached out her hand again. It just stared some more.
Mina stood and started walking towards her car. She whistled a soft melody to keep calm. It was too dark and that strange cat had made her all nervous. The wind rustled a shrub at the edge of the lot and Mina jumped again. Stupid cat, she thought as she pulled her keys out. She was just about to put her keys into the lock when something knocked her from behind. She fell against her car and onto the ground.
"Kakakakaka"
Mina turned to see tall woman with silver skin and a skin tight back body suit with holes cut out of it. It was very provocative, but what Mina was staring at was her head. It was shaped like a camera. Her eye was the lens and there were antenna sticking out the top bobbling like a toy to make a child smile at a studio. Long lean arms led to hands with long, sharp nails. Mina screamed!
"Wann pretty picture?" The thing laughed, it's voice sounded like the shutter from the photo shoot Mina'd just left. The thing then reached up and pulled on one of it's antenna's and it flashed bright.
Mina was blinded. There were black spots in her vision but she could hear it moving closer. She rolled away. The asphalt was hard and gravel was digging into her but she kept going. She pulled up onto her knees and prayed that the thing wasn't in front of her before she started running. Mina'd only taken three steps before she ran into it.
"Missed picture, try again?" it said gripping her arms.
Mina screamed. Something burned on her forehead.
Another flash. More back spots clouded her vision. This time though Mina started to feel a slight pulling sensation where the monster was holding her arms. Her limbs felt heavier, and her eyelids started to droop. Mina was thinking about how nice it would be to have a nap when she heard a hiss and the hands dropped her.
Mina crumpled to the ground. She didn't even care that there were rocks digging into her cheek. She wanted to sleep.
She was vaguely aware of hissing and scratching somewhere far away. The monster cursed. What terrible language. Was it leaving? Oh well...
"Mina, get up," a deep male voice was right by her ear. A saviour?
"Mina!" It shouted.
Mina opened her eyes. There was that strange cat again. It was standing right by her head. Where'd the monster go? Oh, it was over by the door rubbing it's lens with a cloth mumbling about scratches.
"Mina!" that voice again. Wait... that was the cat! Cat's don't talk! Mina sat up.
"Use this pen and say Venus Power! You will know what to do from there." The cat said, nudging an orange pen with a golden top with his nose. There was a symbol on it that looked like a heart with a cross attached to the bottom. Mina picked it up; it was lighter than it looked. She thrust her arm into the air and shouted.
"Venus power, Make up!"
She was surrounded by an orange light. The pen seemed in control now, she just followed the feelings. Power welled inside her and concentrated at the tip of the pen. Stars burst forth and encircled her in a spiral. Mina felt calm and joy and hope and love and power all at the same time. The rush was incredible. The string of stars concentrated around her feet before bursting upwards around her in all directions. With the burst Mina felt her fears disappear. Mina spun and finally ended with one arm raised above her head and the other across her chest. The whole thing lasted a second but seemed in slow motion to her.
Mina yelped when she looked down. She was wearing a white body suit with a large blue bow on her chest. There was a mini skirt. A really short orange mini skirt sat on her hips, white gloves to her elbows covered her arms and orange high heel shoes with an ankle strap on her feet. Something cool was on her forehead and reaching up she felt smooth metal and a gem in the center.
What on Earth was going on here. Mina looked at the youma, yes, that's what it was, and it was still rubbing it's lens. Her fingers itched. Then they acted like they knew exactly what to do. The power that had settled in her heart during the transformation burned and zipped to her finger tips
"Venus Crescent Beam!" She raised one arm high above her head and the power gathered into a double crescent shape just above her fingertips. She touched the golden glow and then pointed towards the youma. Her other arm again crossed her chest to add it's power to the one attack. Her fingertips glowed and a beam shot out. It hit the youma in the back.
The youma flung it's arms into the air and cried. "Camilita!"
Then it disintegrated into dust.
Mina stared at the pile of dust in the parking lot. The wind picked up and blew it away. She couldn't believe her eyes. Did that really just happen? She looked down. Yep, she was still wearing that fuku. How did she know it was a fuku? She didn't know how she knew, she just did. What was going on here?
"Just what is going on here?"She asked.
The cat spoke again. "Sailor Venus! I am so glad that I've finally found you! My name is Artemis, and you are destined to protect the Earth."
"WHAT?"
"The Negaverse is trying to take over Earth and I am supposed to help find and train the guardians of the Moon Princess so that we can protect it and her."
With that Mina fainted. Artemis came over and licked the orange gem on her tiara causing the transformation to fade and settled down to wait until she woke up.
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Thank you for the reviews!
If there is any confusion, the girls are finished highschool it's been 2 years since Serena got married, which was about six months after graduation.
