A/N: Enjoy!

Note: There will be no update next week, March 8th 2013, as I am moving to a new apartment (my first time!) and won't have the time. You can check my profile for updates.

How I fell asleep that night, I'll never know. But I might as well have just stayed awake for all the good it did me. I woke up the next morning feeling even more exhausted than when I'd gone to bed. All night I'd had horrible nightmares about what Rubeus might do to Tokyo. I knew there was no line that he wouldn't cross. We would be fortunate if all he did was level the city, and my dreams had given me far worse ideas about what he could do. Finally, after hours of tossing and turning, I dragged myself out of bed at seven that morning and went to wash my face. I got dressed in my uniform and wandered out to the kitchen. Mika was gone, but Shingo was still there, sitting at the kitchen table. I was surprised to see him.

"Don't you have to get to school?" I asked him. I shuffled across to the fridge and opened the door, hoping that breakfast would magically fall out. No such luck.

"I do, but I had to talk to you first. I don't care if I'm a little late," Shingo said. There was something weird about his voice. It was enough to make me turn around and take more notice. Like I said, he was at the table and his hands were tightly fisted in his lap. When he looked up at me, I was struck by the amount of worry in his expression. He was genuinely frightened.

"Shingo, you don't have to be scared by what that guy said last night," I said. It was the only thing I could think of that might be concerning him so much. "I bet that he'll be stopped before he can do anything."

"That's what worries me," Shingo replied. "I'm worried that you're going to do something stupid like give yourself up to him."

My stomach did a weird little flip that had nothing to do with the baby. "Me?" I said with a nervous laugh. "Oh, come on Shingo, I hardly think that he would be interested in someone like me."

Shingo shook his head. "Let's not, okay?" he said quietly. "I know that you're Sailor Moon."

It felt like the world had fallen out from underneath me, and it was good that there was a chair close by because I practically collapsed into it. My heart was pounding and my mind felt totally blank. I knew I should've been saying or doing something to convince him that he was wrong, but to be honest I felt frozen. I'd never been openly confronted by anyone in my family who professed to know my identity. Sure, I knew that there were people who knew - Motoki, for one, and I thought Unazuki might too, and Rei's grandfather, and possibly Ami's mother - but it was a whole other story to be faced with it. I wanted to ask Shingo how he'd found out, I wanted to deny it, but I couldn't say anything.

"Nee-chan, breathe!" Shingo said, looking alarmed. He hurried over to the fridge, which was still hanging wide open, and removed a carton of orange juice. He poured me a tall glass and held it up in front of me. I stared at it for a couple of seconds before I remembered what it was for. The juice was sweet and fruity, and it shocked me back to my senses. I drained half the glass before gently pushing his hand away.

"You know," I said, just to be sure.

"Yes," Shingo confirmed, setting the glass down on the table. Seemingly sensing that I needed more details, he continued, "I've known for a while now to be honest. You knew I idolized Sailor Moon. I read all of the newspaper articles about her and the senshi, even examined all of the pictures that I could get my hands on." He smiled faintly. "Frankly, I'm surprised more people haven't picked up on it. I guess they just don't realize that you are a hero."

My throat felt tight. That had always been one of my very best disguises, the fact that no one thought crybaby Tsukino Usagi would ever be capable of being the heroine Sailor Moon. I picked up the glass and drank the rest to keep myself from crying. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

He shrugged. "It never seemed to be necessary. I figured it out about a year ago, and I thought that as long as you never did anything too dangerous there was no point in me mentioning it to you." He fixed me with a look that indicated he felt I had now crossed that line. "But I know you, Usagi. I saw the look on your face last night. You can't give yourself over to this guy. If he kills you, what do you think will happen to the Earth? There won't be anyone who is capable of protecting us the way that you can."

I wanted to argue, but the awful thing was I knew he was right. "But he'll destroy the city if I don't," I whispered.

"I'm sure you can think of some way to stop him. You have friends, right? Those other senshi? If you put your strength together, your sacrifice wouldn't be necessary!"

His words struck a chord in me. I had said the exact same thing to Haruka and Michiru not that long ago, when I was begging them to understand that the owner of the pure heart crystals did not need to die. I closed my eyes and smiled. "Maybe you're right, Shingo," I said softly, not entirely willing to concede that fast. Giving myself up might be the only way. "But I have to do something. I can't stand idly by and let Rubeus do whatever he wants. My job is to protect this world and the people who live here." I looked up at him, willing him to understand.

Shingo studied me for a moment. "Why you?" he asked finally. "Why not someone else?"

"Oh, that's a long story," I said. A story I wasn't sure he was ready to hear. The idea of the Moon Kingdom and reincarnation was hard enough for people who were intimately familiar with magic to swallow. I had lived it and I sometimes still had trouble believing it. "Just - it had to be me, okay? I was born for this, Shingo. It's my destiny." And oh, I hoped Shingo would never understand how much I had come to loathe that word.

"Alright, I'll buy that. But I won't let you do anything stupid," he said. There was something in his face that at first I couldn't place, something I didn't recognize even though it was familiar to me. Then I realized what it was. Painful determination. "Promise me you won't give yourself over."

I frowned, subjecting him to the same scrutiny he'd just given me. There was more going on here then Shingo was letting on. "Why the sudden need to talk about this now?" I asked. "You know that I'm smarter than that. I wouldn't give in to Rubeus's demands right away, not unless I thought there I had to. Why would you let me know that you know I'm Sailor Moon unless you had to?"

Now it was his turn to look away from me. It was only for a second, and then he took a deep breath and glanced back at me. Without saying a word, he reached out and took my hand. He pulled me out of the chair and I followed him into the living room, watching in confusion as he reached out and turned the television on. It only took me a minute to understand what he was unwilling to tell me, and when I did my mouth dropped open and I could only stare in speechless silence.

The channel he had flipped to was the one for the news, and up until now the main story had been the recovery efforts. But now there was a huge banner running across the screen that said "Who is Sailor Moon?" in large block letters. At the bottom of the screen was a phone number. Shingo turned the volume up just in time for us to hear, "- police are saying that there are currently very few leads as to the identity of Sailor Moon. In light of recent events, they are offering a substantial reward for anyone who is willing to step forward with information that leads to her identity being found."

"At this point we just want to talk to the woman known as Sailor Moon." The abrupt switch to a familiar man, Police Chief Nakamura Okito, made me jump. "For far too long the Tokyo police department has been operating in the dark, and it's time that we understood what it is going on before anyone else is hurt or worse. We would like to make it clear to the public that we are not bringing charges against Sailor Moon right now; we have some questions that we need answered and she is the only one who can do that. We have crime scene technicians investigating footage, but at a time like this everyone needs to pull together and do what they can.

"So I'm asking you to keep your eyes open and report any suspicious activity. Do not try to apprehend Sailor Moon or any other senshi, but call the police if you see her. We are offering a reward for information leading to her whereabouts, and add that it's possible anyone who is helping to hide her could be charged with a crime at a later date. This is the safety of our city that is at stake, and I think -"

Shingo muted the television. Chief Nakamura continued to speak, but now I couldn't hear anything. It was just as well. There was a dull roaring in my ears. For the second time that morning, I sat down not because I wanted to but because my legs would no longer hold me up. I'd always wondered, privately, if this day might come, if the people of Tokyo would get curious about the heroes that defended their town and want to know more about us. But I had never imagined that it might turn into some sort of citywide manhunt.

"They might be telling the truth," Shingo said when he saw the look on my face. "Maybe they do only want you for questioning. But I thought it was better for you to know just in case. People are going to be watching closely from now on. There're an awful lot of people who could really use that reward money."

I nodded numbly, knowing what he meant. The next time I had to transform, I was going to have to be extremely careful about where I did it. In the past I'd been able to take the occasional chance, but I wouldn't be able to do that anymore. I'd even have to be more careful about what I talked about in public. The senshi and I had sometimes discussed things we probably shouldn't have, never thinking that someone might be listening. Shingo was right: there was going to be a lot of scrutiny over the next few days, and as we got closer to the end of the week more people would start to panic. God. This was going to be a total nightmare.

"Thank you for showing me this," I said roughly. As hard as it was to watch, I much preferred to see it here rather than be exposed to it on my way to school.

"Are you okay?" Shingo asked quietly.

I stared at him and felt the sudden urge to laugh hysterically. One of my oldest, most deadly enemies had managed to turn my whole town against me in the span of one night. I was not okay. I might never be okay again. But I couldn't tell him that. I just nodded and forced a smile. "I'm fine."

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