A/N: I'm so sorry this is so late, work got really busy for me, so I haven't had as much time to work on it, but don't worry, I'm not dead yet. Thank you for all the reviews so far.

Also I just want to clear something up with regards to one of the reviews. Yes, there is another story that has the same premise of "Usagi aged forward instead of backwards in the clock store battle." But I wasn't aware of it when I wrote this. I talked to the author of that fic after that anon accused her of plagiarizing her (even though her fic predates mine). There's no hard feelings between us, and we both agreed that our fics are different enough that it wasn't worth worrying about. It's a common enough idea for a fanfic that it wouldn't be impossible for two people to have the same idea.

Chapter 4/? - Dangerous Assumptions

Sailor Moon stood in one of the shrine's rooms, along with Luna, Sailor Mercury and the newest member, Sailor Mars. A tense silence had descended over the room following the fight with Jadeite.

"So, what the hell was that?" Said Mars, breaking the tension that had enveloped the room.

"Lady Mars, please control your temper." Sailor Moon spoke softly yet firm as she detransformed. "You are one of the Sailor Soldiers, an ancient sisterhood of fierce and powerful warriors. Rei Hino, you are Sailor Mars, warrior of fire and passion. In the past you were one of the fiercest and most powerful fighters, and you were Commander Venus's second in command."

"In the past?" Asked Ami. She had only known Usagi for a few weeks and she had only just met Rei, but Usagi was talking about them like they were old friends.

"Yes, thousands of years ago the Sailor Senshi were the guardians of an alliance that spanned almost the entire Solar System. It was known as the Silver Millennium, and the four Guardian Senshi, Sailor Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter were the personal protectors of the royal family." Usagi explained. "Selenas, The Moon, was the seat of the alliance, with every planet except the earth as members of the alliance."

"Wait, how could the other planets had civilizations on them when they can't even support life as we know it?" Ami interjected. As far as she knew, Earth was the only planet in the Solar System that could support life.

"You're right Ami, the other planets in this system can't support life, anymore." Usagi spoke in a very dark tone. "The Dark Kingdom systematically stripped each planet except Earth of its ability to sustain life."

Ami's eyes went as wide as saucers as the implications of what Usagi had said sunk in.

"The person we just fought was General Jadeite, back then he used to be one of the protectors of the Earth's royal family, until him and three other military officers led a coup against the royal family, declaring themselves to be the 'Four Heavenly Kings of Earth'" Usagi rolled her eyes at the title. "But a powerful mage who had gotten close to the generals named Beryl took control of the Earth's government, and led them against the Silver Millennium."

Usagi paused briefly to catch her breath, the memories of what had happened were still fresh in her mind.

"Those four and Beryl led an army of thousands of youma against the Moon Kingdom, our army fought them off for a while but we were overwhelmed by the numbers. Even the Guardian Senshi died fighting against those four." Usagi turned away from the other two, she didn't want to let them see her this weak.

"Usagi," Ami hesitantly asked. "You said the four guardian senshi were Venus, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter. What about Sailor Moon?"

Usagi closed her eyes and took a deep breath and explained. "There WAS no Sailor Moon back then. There was a stupid treaty that forbid me from becoming Sailor Moon because it was 'an unfair concentration of power,' so I had to sit and watch the rest of you get cut down and I couldn't do anything." The fresh memories of the Moon Kingdom's downfall were still playing out in her mind.

Rei and Ami just looked at Usagi as waves of buried pain seemed to wash over her. Rei finally understood the context of the vision the fire had given her, and Ami felt her heart breaking seeing her friend hurt like this.

Luna looked at Usagi with new eyes, finally realizing who she was. Luna had thought for sure that Sailor Moon and the princess were two separate people, since she had remembered that the princess had never taken up the mantle as a senshi. However, as Luna searched her scattered memories of the Silver Millennium, she couldn't seem to remember a Sailor Moon actually existing, only being talked about.

"So how are we supposed to fight this enemy then?" Rei cautiously asked.

"We need to find the Argentum Crystal." Usagi stated bluntly. "It's an heirloom of the Moon's Royal Family, and I can use it to stop them."

—

Deep within the Dark Kingdom, a suffocating tension had descended over everybody after the revelation that Jadeite had been led into a trap.

"Danburite!" Kunzite yelled into the halls of the Dark Kingdom's base, summoning his Lieutenant. "Danburite, your presence is required."

"Yes, Kunzite-sama." Danburite teleported before Kunzite before bowing to his master.

"Danburite, what is your progress on uncovering the identity of Sailor V?" Demanded Kunzite, his patience with the man long-gone.

"Forgive me my lord, for I have not yet deduced her civilian identity, although I have a lead that I am currently pursuing." Danburite spoke apologetically. "I am certain, however, that she IS Commander Venus from the Silver Millennium."

"I see," Kunzite mused over the information. "You have earned a stay of execution for now. But if I sense any treachery from you, it will be dealt with swiftly. Let the youma Kigaan be an example to you."

Danburite gulped, Kunzite couldn't of known that, could he? He thought to himself, musing over his idea to play the Dark Kingdom and the Senshi against each other and side with the victors.

"Danburite, you are dismissed." Kunzite ordered. "Get out of my sight."

"Kunziiiite" Zoicite sang as he sat down next to Kunzite and wrapped his arms around Kunzite's waist. "What are you thinking about?"

"I am trying to figure out Commander Venus' movements." Kunzite replied. "Something caused her to relocate from Japan to England in a hurry. Venus you clever girl, what are you hiding…" Kunzite trailed off.

"Kunzite, how is she hiding? Didn't you say that she put her face and name on every street corner?" Zoicite asked.

"She must have been trying to hide herself." Kunzite replied. "Create this image that Sailor V is a fictitious character and throw so much noise up around her activities that nobody knows what she's really up to, I would have expected nothing less from Commander Venus." Kunzite furrowed his brow at the puzzle before him. "Venus is operating in a very cloak-and-dagger methodology and she has been covering her tracks very well. I would have thought that Mars and Mercury would have done the same in Tokyo, but from what Jadeite tells me, they and Sailor Moon have been loudly announcing their presence to everybody in Tokyo…" Kunzite trailed off in thought.

"Maybe the Sailor Senshi WANT us to be fighting in Tokyo and they want to draw attention away from whatever Venus is doing?" Zoicite suggested.

Kunzite's eyes widened at the realization. "Of course! Commander Venus sent Captain Mars and Sailor Mercury to Tokyo as a feint, hoping to draw us away from England. That's it, Venus is protecting something in England, and she's hoping to draw our attention away from her."

Zoicite smiled. "Could it be the Argentum Crystal?" He asked.

"It could be," Kunzite mused. "But I do not see why that would require Commander Venus' personal attention like this. Captain Mars could easily guard the crystal just as well, but I know Venus, and I know that the one person she'd never leave was Princess Serenity. I would say that THAT is what Venus is protecting. She sent Mars and Mercury to Tokyo to draw us away from the princess so that her and Jupiter could better protect the princess."

Zoicite leaned his head onto Kunzite's shoulder and the both of them laughed at finally seeing through the Senshi's plan.

—

Halfway around the world, a young blonde girl named Minako Aino was sitting patiently in a subway car with a white cat on her lap, and a small grocery bag in her hand.

"Now approaching Brent Cross Station, Brent Cross Station is the next stop." Chimed the automated voice in the tube car.

"That's our stop, come on Artemis!" Said the girl, gathering the cat in her lap and walking over to the doors. The train rolled to a stop and she left the train, walking by a well-dressed woman with dark green hair, who stood up and followed her out of the underground station.

Minako walked down the street from the subway station and into her small flat. It wasn't much, but it fit her cover story of a student who was "studying abroad." Mina pulled her usual meal of a cornish pasty and Crunchie bar out of the shopping bag and munched away on it as she scanned through every newspaper she could get her hands on.

"See anything that looks like the Dark Company?" Asked the white cat as he chowed away on his can of tuna with a tiny fork.

"Nope, nothing that looks like the dark company. Looks like there's some protests in Bangkok, the Yanks have a new space shuttle, and the UN pulled it's peacekeepers out of Sarajevo." Minako replied, "Nothing that looks like the Dark Company, anyway."

Minako's scan of the newspapers was suddenly interrupted by a knock on her door.

"Mina, were you expecting somebody?" Asked Artemis.

"No.." Replied Minako, her thoughts jumping to the preparations she had made in case her identity as Sailor V had been compromised. Walking over to the door, she looked through the peep-hole and saw a woman with dark green hair and a well-tailored business suit. Minako didn't recognize her, but something about this woman felt familiar.

"Can I help you?" Minako asked, cracking the door to her tiny flat open a tiny amount.

"Hello Commander." Replied the woman. "It's good to see you again."

—

"So then, Horsie boy comes back, and Jupiter had made this laurel tree grow out of the ground, so me and Daph are hiding up in this tree, and then you walked over to him and told him that she was turned into a tree." Usagi told Ami, laughing at her own story. "And he believed you! Of course Mars was a grouch about the whole idea, but that was what it took to get him to leave my handmaiden alone."

As Usagi and Ami walked home from the shrine, Ami made a mental note to read up on her mythology, knowing that she was a PART of those stories, maybe she could use that to trigger her memories.

"So then what happened?" Ami asked, her own memories of that incident were fuzzy.

"Oh, Helios made a crown out of the laurels and sulked off. But Endy told me later that he would go back to the tree all the time and sing to it." Usagi replied.

The two girls and one cat stopped in front of Ami's condo complex.

"See you at school tomorrow Ami-chan!" Usagi yelled, giving Ami one last hug before she left.

"See you tomorrow, princess." Ami said, walking inside her condo building.

—

Walking inside, Ami was surprised to see that her mother was at home.

"Oh, Ami! I was cleaning out the closet and I found some old drawings of yours." Her mother said as she handed Ami some old and brittle pieces of construction paper.

Ami looked at the old drawing, it was a childs drawing for sure, but there was a stick figure drawing of herself wearing a long blue dress, next to a tall woman with brown hair that was held back in a pony-tail and a green dress, a blonde girl with an orange dress and a red bow in her hair.

She looked at the other two figures in the drawing. It was a crude drawing, but it was unmistakably a picture of Usagi wearing a long white gown with gold fringing, there was no mistaking that hairstyle. The other drawing was a girl in a red dress that looked frighteningly similar to Rei.

"Oh, it's your imaginary friends." Saeko Mizuno spoke up. "You used to tell me about them all the time when you were little, remember?"

Ami's face went red as her mother reminder her of that. She HAD forgotten the imaginary friends she used to have as a little girl, having grown out of it and written them off as a product of an overactive imagination as a kid.

Looking at it now, she wasn't so sure.

"Thank you for saving these." Ami spoke softly and took the drawings to her bedroom.

—

Luna and Usagi were walking across the passenger bridge on their way back to Usagi's house.

"Princess, I'm sorry I never recognized you before." Luna spoke, feeling somewhat ashamed of herself.

"Luna, I'm still Usagi." She objected. "And I'm still Sailor Moon, and you have NOTHING to be sorry about."

"Serenity, you have Mercury and Mars here, they can protect you." Luna said.

"Luna!" Usagi was exasperated. "I'm Sailor Moon because I wanted to be a senshi. When the kingdom fell, I had to watch as my guard DIED one by one, and I couldn't do anything. I wanted to help them, and more than anything I wanted to be one of them."

"I just…" Luna started to speak up. "No, it's stupid, nevermind."

"What, Luna?" Usagi asked

"I thought that, since you remembered the Silver Millennium, you wouldn't need me anymore." Luna explained.

"Luna, how could you even think that." Usagi explained. "You're one of my closest friends, and we've always been there for each other. Who ferried you around on top of her head? Who got into trouble with me all the time? You did."

"Talking to your cat, dumpling head?" Came a familiar irritating voice from behind Usagi. Usagi turned around and saw him.

"Endymion." She spoke.