Long awaited chapter 14, enjoy.

Characters aren't mine, pls don't sue me. k, thnx, bai.

Luna didn't have to wait long in the tree for the mysterious stranger. Less than an hour later, the stranger left the Crown and made their way through the town. In the light of the sun she was finally able to get a good look at the young man. He was a young man, probably in his late teens, early twenties, with very short blonde hair and gray eyes. He was quite striking in the light, but something still felt very off about him. She didn't have to follow him very far as she saw him walk up the steps to a temple.

It was the first time that Luna had investigated this side of town and she could feel even more energy coming from the space. The energies conflicted with one another however, and filled to the brim with curiosity, she trotted up the steps of the shrine.

Luna looked around to a clean, yet somewhat empty shrine. There weren't any people to speak of walking around as they normally do, but the shrine didn't look run down by any stretch of the imagination.

"Oh, Jade, you're back?" Luna heard a young woman's voice call out.

Ok, so his name is Jade then, Luna thought to herself.

"Yes, I am, I'll get changed and start sweeping right away Rei." Was Jade's response to the young woman talking to him.

"Okay, I'm going to be making more amulets. Let me know if you need help with anything." Was the reply.

Luna thought to leave at this point, now that she knew where Jade seemed to reside, but her instincts told her to make stick around for just a little longer. Her patience paid off. She followed Jade to a secluded hut outside of the main part of the temple, and through the window of the building, she was able to see him not change into his temple clothes, but morph into them. Alarmed, she realized that she had finally found an active member of the Negaverse. She needed to get in contact with the scouts immediately and let them know about her findings.

She watched Jade make his way around the building of the temple and start to lazily sweep the temple grounds, humming to himself under his breath. Luna knew that she had seen what she needed to. It was time to go.

Luna was about to run back to the Tsukino household, but as she walked around the buildings of the temple, she was able to clearly sense the other power she had picked up. The distance from Jade made sensing the power a little easier and this time, the power didn't make her hackles rise. Turning the corner of a large building she was able to clearly see the young woman Jade had been talking to. He referred to her as Rei.

To Luna, Rei had the same aura around her as the other Sailor Scouts. Could this be another Sailor Scout? The young woman was dressed as a priestess of the temple, and she was staring at the fire in front of her with intense concentration. The amulets she was supposed be praying over were scattered by her side.

Luna watched as Rei chanted to herself, asking questions of the fire in front of her. It didn't take a genius to realize that yes, Rei was not only another Sailor Scout, but without any doubt in her mind, Luna knew that Rei was Sailor Mars. She knew that she needed a way to talk to the young woman, but she also knew she needed to be careful with a member of the Negaverse near by.

But why was Jade here? Did Rei know anything about Jade and his powers? Was she working with him? There were too many unanswered questions. Torn, Luna decided that her time would be best utilized observing the two. At least this way she would be able to tell if they were working together or not. From what she gleaned about the initial interaction that she witnessed, it didn't seem like the two were close, but she would get her answers by observing them.

She climbed up a tree where she observe most of the temple. Her high vantage point allowing her to watch both Jade and Rei at the same time. She settled in to the nook of a branch and waited patiently. Hopefully, she could clear Sailor Mars from any suspicion and could find an opportunity to recruit the Scout of fire.

While Usagi slept in her enchanted sleep, Ikuko had been busy. According to the conversation she had with Usagi, she promptly pulled Usagi from the school system and registered her as a home-schooled student. Ikuko went out and got all the books and items she needed to be able to assist Usagi in making sure that she would be able to continue her education properly, and hopefully be able to excel in her education.

Usagi's absence from school caused more than just a buzz of gossip. Rumors circulated around the school which was fueled by the absence of Haruna-sensei. By that point everyone had heard about how Usagi had been kicked out of class and how the new girl, Makoto also got kicked out of class. Usagi might not have been considered "popular" by any stretch of the imagination, but no one had anything bad about to stay about her. She was generally well liked and everyone always enjoyed the vivacious energy she normally carried about her.

Makoto would have been popular that day, with everyone wanting to ask her for her account of what had happened last week and if she knew anything about where Usagi was, but as it stood, people were still to scared of her to approach her directly, especially after calling Haruna a bitch just last week.

So the rumors flew about, and Makoto and Ami looked at each other knowingly. They would have to get used to not having Usagi around at school now and even though they were preoccupied about worrying about her condition, they couldn't but also realize how much Usagi's presence had come to mean to them.

Like in the past, Usagi's mere presence was able to light up the very space around her. School without her, just seemed more drab and boring. They had only started their friendship, and they already missed her so much.

Thankfully there had been no incidents for the past couple of days that required the Sailor Scouts. But aside from the rumors circulating around Usagi, there had also been rumors at school about people disappearing from the number 66 bus just outside a Shinto temple not far from the Crown Arcade. It was suspicious. Makoto and Ami knew that they needed to inform Luna about it stat.

After school Makoto and Ami made their way back to the Tsukino residence. It had sort of become their unofficial head quarters and it was just the best place to communicate with Luna without anyone becoming suspicious of the talking cat.

They hadn't seen Luna since the night they had found out about Usagi's condition and so they had hoped that they would encounter her as well as check up on Usagi at the same time.

At Usagi's house Ikuko had snacks waiting for the girls as she mentioned to them that Luna had come back home late in the morning and had gone promptly to sleep in Usagi's room after returning, but that she should be waking up soon. The girls were welcome to go upstairs with their snack and wake her up with their new found knowledge of the suspicious missing people by the temple.

Once upstairs, they slowly roused Luna from her sleep, apologetic that they had to do so. But once they all shared their news with each other, it was clear that they had a job on their hands that they would have to do without Usagi.

"So you're saying that people who take the 66 bus in the late afternoon have been going missing?" Luna asked, shocked.

"That's what the rumors are saying," Makoto replied.

"I can't believe that you were able to find Sailor Mars," interjected Ami. "That's such a coincidence."

"Really, the timing couldn't have been better, honestly. Especially with Usagi being in the state that she's in. We need as many scouts together as we can get to protect her." Luna replied.

"And you're sure that she has nothing to do with that Jade guy?" Makoto asked.

"Positive. Unless they're masters of deceptive communication, it looked like Jade knows something about Rei, or at least he knows that she has spiritual powers, because I was able to witness him interrupt her working with her fire last night." Luna answered.

"That doesn't seem like something an ally would do." Ami responded, nodding to herself.

"Exactly," Luna said.

"So what's the game plan?" Makoto asked looking at both Ami and Luna.

"We need to awaken Sailor Mars and give her her transformation pen, but we also need to cautious of Jade. We can't lose Sailor Mars to him." Luna stated.

"And we still need to investigate about the people disappearing from bus 3," Ami chimed in.

The three looked at each other thinking over their options.

Makoto just shrugged and said, "I guess it looks like we're going to the shrine then."

Ami and Luna looked at her nodding in agreement. Really it was their only option.

"We could go under the guise that we're there to buy protection amulets." Ami said, tapping on her chin while thinking. "I heard some of the girls from our class saying they wanted to buy some there."

"It's a good excuse as any." Responded Makoto. "Let's roll out!"

And so the trio let Ikuko know their plans and headed on out back to Hikawa Shrine.

I'll try to post some more chapters soon. No promises tho!

xo~